Yoga, I'm Feelin' It

Recently I went to our Blockbuster Online account to place an order for movies they would send for our "viewing pleasure." Along with a few "real" movies, I added a yoga for beginners DVD to the queue. It came in the mail yesterday and because I wasn't sure what to expect, it sat in its package until this evening when my back was so tense and my head ached with pain shooting from the base of my head up toward my forehead like I had a firing squad in my shirt. If yoga can't help this, nothing will, I thought. So I whipped that DVD out of its case, popped it into the DVD player and braced myself for what I might see and be expected to do, there, alone in my family room...okay so I guess no one expected anything of me BUT me.

It started off with easy stretches and focused, relaxed breathing. It felt like the tension oozed from the center of my body out through my toes and finger tips.

"I could enjoy this, I think," I thought.

Then the stretches started to get a bit tougher even causing me to breathe harder.

"Keep your abdomen soft, relax your breathing," the instructor said.

That was different, I'd spent half an hour keeping my abdomen hard as a rock, or maybe more like hard as a stiff pillow, while kicking my way through Tae Bo earlier today. Keeping my abdomen soft was much more familiar to me and to my body. I took a long, deep breath then
e-x-h-a-l-e-d.

Not long after I smiled at my tummy's willingness to go soft I had to attempt the downward dog. Yikes. Now that requires some focus, some breathing and prayer that your tight muscles don't just snap and you collapse, face first, to the floor. That kind of rug burn would have required some lengthy explanation!

She allowed me to recover, then back to downward dog I went. That will take some practice. I will conquer the downward dog if it's the last thing I do.

The last few poses required me to hold my upper body strong and "feel the air in my sternum" while I stood with my legs in the shape of a capital letter A. Yowza. It wasn't painful really as much as it was strengthening muscles I didn't know needed strengthening. Finally, she said we would go into the cool down and then she was speaking my language!

We ended with stretches that made me feel alive and relaxed all over, I'm still breathing deep enough to see my chest and tummy accept and reject air. I usually work pretty hard at breathing deeply, when I notice my shallow breaths during the day. This was amazing, all after just 20 minutes with this cool, calm, collected, and very flexible woman.

This was my first experience with yoga and it made me feel so good that I'm going to do it often. There's just nothing like a natural release of tension (and gas, oddly enough) to make a girl feel relaxed like she's just had a massage. If you haven't tried it, you should! Preferrably without kids around to distract you...this experience is better if it's had without distraction. Go forth and pose...carefully! Namaste.