namasté

Namasté, aaah, if only I had nature’s souplesse and way to adapt to any given situation!
The power to re-energise en to be a able to shut myself and especially my mind down whenever I feel the need to.

I had my very first yoga session yesterday but deliberately waited until today to write down any ‘yay or nay’ experience…surely giving it some time I would be more able to evaluate how I would feel…wrecked, in pain or just the opposite, more energetic or more at inner peace?

So, let’s flash back to yesterday and give you some background info…I have been playing with the idea to give yoga a try for some months now. With the start of the new school year, so did many activities in our local sports centre. I did some research and mailed the yoga institution for more info especially regarding my medical history and whether yoga would be a great idea or not. I have a back condition called scoliosis, have had multiple surgeries, major part of my spine is fixated and I am in daily pain, backpain, as well as radiating pains. More info on that on one of the earlier posts here Crash and reboot, the chronic back pain tales
As it turned out, next class was scheduled the next afternoon and I was welcome to join in and just give it a try.

I must admit I was not sure what to expect, my knowledge of yoga was what I had seen on tv or read in magazines and it all looked very complicated and technical, that is in my particular case as I am on sports level and more general any movements level rather limited!

I explained the situation to the teacher and found myself a spot front row next to two lovely ladies who made me feel very welcome and told me to just take it slow, not to worry if things seemed difficult the first time and not to over-do. I felt confident to start…and then we had to do the so-called ‘sun greeting’ and I just thought: “What am I doing here?!” Is that to scare off any newcomers or is it just me being not that flexible? Greeting one, I was still ignorant of what was coming…my fellow yogi were already at sun greeting three when I was still trying to figure out all the different positions, realising technically I couldn’t do them all, so I just sat down and felt really really stupid, had that “What was I thinking” moment while I was in a ‘sitting bear’ pose…does that one exist?

But hey, I’m no quitter and I must admit of the entire lesson, that lasted one hour and adding twenty minutes of relaxation, those first minutes were the most challenging. Sure, other poses came along were it seemed my two lovely neighbour ladies (of whom I if I would have to guess their age would say somewhere between seventy and eighty) ignored all laws of gravity: their legs and body high up with the candle pose and switching between different poses with a flexibility and smoothness I could not help admire and be jealous of!

Namasté…my soul honors your soul.  I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides.  I honor the light, love, truth, beauty and peace within you, because it is also within me.  In sharing these things we are united, we are the same, we are one.

During class the teacher helped me out or handed me some alternatives so in an overall sense this try-out got a ‘yay’ and yes I do feel a bit more pain today but not in a bad way.
I didn’t put too much pressure on my body, after all these years I tend to know my limits, but even more, there was no need…everybody just did the poses on their own pace and level. Aside from the sun-greeting I must admit the relaxation part turned out rather difficult, curious if after a few weeks or months I can see or feel a change there…

So yes…am gonna give it a try, though there might still be a ‘sitting duck’ or ‘hanging bear’ once in a while!

Ingrid