My Yoga Journey

So this post might be a little personal, but i think that is kind of the point. Lately I have had a lot going on in my personal life. My grandmother ended up back in the hospital with another stroke, my dad is getting eye surgery, and my uncle passed away. With all of this going on it is safe to say that I was a little crazy. However, I decided to go to a meditation class today because I felt myself having a mental breakdown. I have a lot of friends who never stop talking to me about how great their meditation class is so I decided this was a better week than any to go. To my surprise it was the first time in days I felt okay. I was able to control my breathing and feel like the world wasn't going to end tomorrow. The teacher made me feel very comfortable and spoke so softly. Im not sure if this is embarrassing or not, but I may have let out a tear or two during it. After that practice you can bet on seeing me in a meditation class again. I loved the atmosphere of the room and the

This week in class we practiced Ashtanga Yoga and it would have to be my favorite practice so far! I really liked how the teacher showed us all of the moves before we did them. Since I am still very much a beginner I always like to visually see how the poses are supposed to look so that I can mirror it and not hurt myself. She did a really good job or not making me feel like I was such a newby because she showed the entire class how to do it. I also liked how she came around the room and lightly tapped you to help get you in the proper position. The postures were definitely a challenge for my body, but I liked it. I like that by doing these practices I am pushing myself to get a little outside of my comfort zone. I would definitely practice this type again because it was easy enough for my to do, but hard enough that it wasn't boring.

Today in class we tried Iyengar yoga and to be honest I was not a fan of it. As I have been practicing I like it where there is a flow to it. I found it really hard for me to hold the positions for 10 minutes. I kept falling out of position and having to reposition myself. I also did not like how slow pace it was. Considering how active and hyper i normally am, standing still in a position was not for me. The props also were hard for me to get used to using.  I did like the instructor however, because she was always walking around the room to help if we needed it. She was able to make the room feel calm even without the music playing. I also liked how she showed us what to do first and then helped us get into the postures.

This in class we had someone come in a teach a Bikram class for us. Before this class I only had so many yoga classes under my belt, but I was excited to see how I liked it. This style of yoga is known to have a cult like style following and I can see why. I really enjoyed it! I felt that the asanahs we were doing were challenging, but I liked it. I like pushing myself to do thing I think I can't. I wish that we were able to be in a really hot room because I feel like that would really add to the whole experience of it. I am a runner so I enjoyed the slow but steady postures because as weird as it sounds, it felt good on my joints. This is definitely a style I can see myself doing more often.

As we talked a lot about in class, yoga is known to be very beneficial in terms of health and healing. In one of the movies we watched, one of the men talked about how he was so sick for months and could barely move. He said his legs were so damaged from standing up for years. Then by practicing yoga he was able to heal them completely with the help of his guru. I found this to have some truth to it. In my class my instructor talked about how she had breast cancer for about 2 years. She started practicing yoga around that time and she said she believes it helped her beat it. It put her in a more calm state of mind to where she was able to focus on healing and not what it was physically doing to her body. I think that goes along with the mid over matter mind set. Yoga also does improve your physical body as well. It helps you develop a strong core and back and of course a nice butt.

For this weeks class I wanted to focus on how the room and atmosphere added to the practice. Many people while practicing yoga focus on how the environment is around them. Wether it needs to be completely quite or if they have soft music playing in the background. The room I was in was very much what I would consider to be a ritual space. The lights were so dim almost off, the music playing was very soft and relaxing (almost put me to sleep). The instructor spoke in a very soft tone to where it was very hard to even here him. There were also candle lit along the sides and an insense burning the smelt like grass. I wasn't too fond of that. I felt very connected to my body though, as strange as that sounds, the surrounding really did make a difference. I felt calm and in tune with every movement I was doing.