These days it is hard for me to pick which yoga studio and class I want to attend. I have been practicing for 7 years now, and I am certified as an instructor. I have tried various styles and have loved most of them. I have gone through different phases of being addicted to certain styles. Now, I crave different styles on different days. Sometimes I really want to be challenged with a strict Ashtanga class. Sometimes I crave the heat. Sometimes I want a flowing yet very aligned Anusara class. Sometimes I want to chant and OM. Sometimes I want to be vocally guided as if I have never done any of the postures before. Sometimes I just want to flow on my own. Many times I don't know what I want, so I choose a class time and studio that is convenient for me today.
The other day, I went to Hot Flow class at a studio that many of my friends are in love with. I hadn't made my mind up about the studio yet, but I was craving the heat. I got there and stayed in the back, away from the mirrors. Lately, I prefer studios that don't have mirrors so I can feel the alignment in my body and adjust it instead of looking for it in the mirror. When the class began the teacher had a Bikram style of teaching that is not my favorite. It was not a Bikram class, but I could tell she had a background in it because of her guidance and her clapping. Then she turned the music on and it was a Britney Spears song with just the backing tracks, no vocals. Those are just a few of the things I remember from that class, that are not I was looking for in my yoga class that day. But, I took it on. I breathed through it. I stayed in my practice. I did not judge her teaching style, or the music, or the sequence, or the studio and I f*ing loved it!
I felt so alive in that class and long after it ended. My body got to detoxify, strengthen, lengthen and more. By me not judging the class I opened my body and mind up to receive so much more. So I am concluding that on those days that I don't know what I need the universe does and I just need to welcome it in.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
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You are most inspiring and took the words right out of my mouth with this blog post. Mahalo!
ReplyDeleteExcellent lesson :)
ReplyDeleteMuch ♥ to you!
you should try http://www.ukarma.com/
ReplyDeletelove love love love!
i live in michigan but they have studios in cali and michigan.
try the xflowsion class for something different?
"...on those days that I don't know what I need the universe does and I just need to welcome it in."
ReplyDeleteWords so true and so worth repeating over and over again.
Thank you!
exactly. the greatest thing we are given is the power to decide how we're going to receive the moments that come into our view. we can choose to experience any moment through judgement, through resistance, through the "ugghh this is so not what I wanted" thought filter, or we can release all thought and step into the moment with openness. true Yoga, true Union with the Divine, includes full Union with this moment. whatever this moment appears to be.
ReplyDeleteLove is endless in the ways it gifts itself to us.
♥
It's all about the attitude. One can either complain about the rainy weather or be thankful that rain will keep our plants living, and the plants will give us oxygen and so on...
ReplyDeleteGood example of the kind of attitude needed for happy living, thanks for sharing :)