Sugar Sugar (Honey Honey)

I've figured it out! Yoga is like a dance to some...perhaps something check off a list for others.

I just realized what yoga is for me...it's like sugar. Bear with me...
A lot of people use sugar (or salt in some cases) to intensify the flavor of something. It brings pep to something that was formerly "blah" or so-so. Well, I just got home from class and work; I had a nice little nap, but I was feeling tight all over. My first thought was to stretch, but I also wanted to hear something fun. So, I put on some Justin Timberlake, and then some Feist (my music is all over the place, yes) and got into my yoga groove (pun intended). I stretched, bopped, and sung to the music, elated. I love listening to music, and I like being active, so marrying the two seemed like a good idea.

In the middle of this mini yoga session, a fellow CL knocked on my door to tell me that she is going to start staff-wide yoga sessions set to her Insanity Yoga DVD. (Insanity Yoga?! Look at that...another challenge :) Once again, I love my staff (spending quality time with people in general really), so this is another beautiful marriage: staff time and stretchin'. I'm excited! I'll be sure to follow up with how it goes.

I am obviously a big fan of yoga, but I hope that if I wasn't so into it, I would find ways (like the aforementioned) to make it a more enjoyable experience. I hope this has inspired people from class (or the blogosphere, I guess) to shake up how you do what you do. Make it sweet :)

Challenge Accepted

I have thoroughly enjoyed our yoga class these past few weeks. I'm really excited about what is to come. Last semester, I took Baylor's yoga HP ("fitness and relaxation?" I call it "yoga" anyway...). As a result of that class, and taking a yoga class my freshman year here, I consider myself somewhat advanced. The poses we've done have been at most moderately challenging to me, simply because I've been introduced to most of them before. Nevertheless, I have learned that I need to make modifications to some poses, as I have been doing them incorrectly, or am too short to do some in certain ways (such as supta virasana on the bolster or the shoulder stand on two blankets instead of three).

What has made the class so great, in my opinion, is the zeal for which we are approaching yoga as a class. From my perspective, no one has been shamed for falling or losing their balance. This might be partly due to the fact that we have a desire to get the poses down well. Everyone gives it the old college try. In my yoga class last semester, there was a guy who obviously didn't want to be there. He would come to class late every day, audibly plop himself onto the mat with a sign, and exert minimal effort into his practice. It was frustrating to see. It was also inconsiderate of him to put forth so little, when our instructor and the rest of the class made a conscious effort to get to class on time and make a solid attempt at the poses.
On that note, Dr. Schultz mentioned that we are on our way to doing headstands.

What?

I've never done a handstand in my life, not to mention a headstand. My yoga instructor asked for volunteers during one of our last sessions of the semester to learn how to do headstands in front of the class. A few brave souls stepped up. The rest of us had looked on sheepishly as they raised their hands, then boldly leaned forward to see how they fared. They all did well. I was proud and impressed. Now, it seems I have no choice but to step forward and learn myself. I'm partly terrified, partly excited. I liken it to my experience ziplining a month  ago. I'm afraid of heights, or as someone who was in line with me said, I'm afraid of falling from high up. I didn't really want to go, but I knew it'd be somewhat fun, and a good experience. Once I got  on the platform, I almost unhooked myself and walked away. I actually took a deep breath, and jumped. It was awful at first, and then it was amazing. I felt like I was flying!

I doubt doing a headstand will feel like flying, but it'll feel cool to say I did it. I'm up for the challenge :)

"Fixity" of the mind on the Lord

Somehow, I didn't think spiritual disciplines would come up in this class...It is, after all, a yoga and philosophy class. Nevertheless, they have, and now that I have read about them, it makes sense. Yoga itself is a spiritual discipline. It takes grit to sit still and breathe deeply, or balance in tree pose and breathe deeply without swaying branches or uprooting. According to the Kleshas, one may evade the grasp of the five afflictions by regularly practicing spiritual disciplines. Some suggested disciplines include studying sacred texts and dedicating action to God. Oh my. It's just like Christianity. When my mind is racing and I'm feeling overwhelmed, I study the Bible. When I don't know what else to do about a problem, or literally don't know what to do with myself, I get on my knees and pray. When I'm scrambling to finish a seemingly impossible assignment, I put on some worship music to pull myself out of the spiral of "I can't do this!!!" thoughts. When I get haughty (egoistic), I find myself in trouble; I end up struggling to forge my own path. I had everything under control before... God orders my steps when I let Him lead, when I follow after Him.

I still live in ignorance, have egotistic moments, and so on, but God forgives me. I tell Him I'm sorry for trying to take His job and plead with Him to take it back because I'm awful at it. When I focus on Him and His goodness instead of what's wrong in my life, or my shortcomings, I'm at peace.

The Practice

I think I mentioned in my first post that I am taking a weight training class this semester, and that I am an on again off again runner. Well, I'm starting to see how all of those things are coming together...

Preface: I am very happy with my legs. If I do say so myself, they look really good. They are nice and muscular, although, according to a physical therapist I visited, they are unevenly muscular. Unfortunately, that has made my knees (literally) weak, making running, squats, lunges, taking the stairs, anything that puts pressure on my knees feel painful according to how much I've been doing the aforementioned. I haven't been very diligent about keeping up with my recommended exercises for building up my leg muscles as a whole. (I'm a really disciplined person, but the leg exercises seem to fall to the wayside).

Now that the back story is done, I have been doing a lot of upper body work in WT class. Consequently I have these lovely protective calluses building up. I really hope they don't get in the way of my slowly improving downward dog...Meanwhile, yoga has been great at opening up my chest, and relieving my back of all the tightening that happens in WT. I've been meaning to get back into running, but I obviously have some reasons to proceed with caution. When I do, I will be well prepared with an arsenal of post-running stretches such as Supta Virasana and Western Stretch. Finally, I think the leg work we do in yoga (ahem, holding the downward dog) will be great for my legs, since my upper body gets all the love in WT class.

Spiritual Slap

The most recent bit of How Yoga Works really convicted me. Friday showed the Captain that he has been blaming others for acting a certain way, upsetting him, when he had the power to change his own perspective all along. She accused him of stubbing his own toe and getting upset with others for causing his pain. This particular analogy left me feeling enlightened. Of course! I judge people and get upset when I can't change whatever it is I don't like about them. I am fully capable of changing the situation around.

I quickly let myself step into the role of "the victim." I don't even have to go that far. When I believe that a person is irritating in and of herself, I am only contributing to her irritating behavior because I'll likely treat her as if she's being irritating. Then, in an irritated state, she will be rude to me and the cycle will continue. (Self-fulling prophecy, ftw)! Continuing in the dramatics, I say, "wah wah, she doesn't like me." Well, it would certainly help if I try treating her better than she treats me. Not to one up her, but to win her over. I must also remember that everyone has bad days. It's possible that I'm catching this girl on an especially rough day. I used to work in retail. For some reason, customers often like to take their stress and grief out on we salespeople, either in making us their therapist for half an hour, or by treating us as badly as they feel. I had to remind myself that the latter group have families and people who have to go home to them. Then I would feel bad for those families, and try to treat the customer kindly. Or, I would remind myself that the family might see this person as sweet and endearing, and they deserve to be treated as such. We can all use some respect.

*sigh of exasperation* These lessons are easy to write about, but not so easy to practice. Best wishes, y'all.

Beginning Again

I tend to be a workout snob...which is hilarious considering the fact that I just started working out regularly my senior year in high school. I get proud and think I don't need to stretch much, or at the other end, I think I don't need rest days. A very dangerous mode of thinking, indeed. Unfortunately, my snobbery kept me from keeping up with yoga on my own. "I have XYZ more important things to be doing." In hindsight I can say that I've been lying to myself. I have thoroughly enjoyed this first week of my return to the practice of yoga. Mind and Body are very happy with my decision to take this yoga and philosophy class. Each time I laid in corpse pose at the end of the practice, I felt radiantly peaceful. I forgot how sweet that feeling is, how my mind and my body sing after a good stretching.

The other day I was studying with a friend in the library for several hours. I can't sit still for very long, so I would twist around my chair, cracking my back. (It's a nice temporary solution to my relatively sedentary studying state). I sat, studied, got up to pace, sat and studied some more, went downstairs to buy some sleep-discouraging sugar. None of that was as satisfying as the quick vinyasa I did in the most private corner I could find. A quick sun salutation and downward dog to upward dog made the sitting and studying combo bearable for longer than anything the sugar-producing manufacturers could concoct. I'm glad to say

How Life Works

The events that have surpassed in How Yoga Works parallel recent events in my life. For the protection of this person (my Captain), I'm about to be very vague. Sorry (I'm not sorry), Interwebs. Someone has recently entered my life who needs a lot of help. This sounds pretty harsh now that I've written it, but it's true. We all need help at some point, some in a larger quantity than others, and some more frequently. 

I want to help people. I plan to go to graduate school to get a degree in counseling. I'm terrified, and I feel under qualified, but God is showing me just how qualified I am in a practical way. When the main character said, "...it occured to me that events had thrust me to the very place I had always said I wanted to go: to an opportunity where I could help others heal themselves..." I realized that she succinctly and eloquently verbalized where I am in life. 

My Captain, the person I've been helping (and at times encouraging her/him to get help from those more qualified than me), continues to show me how I've grown. I have learned a lot in the psychology classes I've taken and the positions I've held that require exercising my interpersonal skills. In the time that I've known My Captain, I have used quite a bit from my stores of knowledge. I have also been humbled by reminders that I don't know everything, and I am not omnipotent. (Thank goodness). Like Roach's protagonist, I find myself laughing on the inside as My Captain will express concern which I expressed with others older than me. I've listened to her/him complain, worry, and even get excited about things which once stressed and eustressed(?) me. This situation/friendship/mentorship makes me thankful for every challenging thing I've endured. It would be hard to say, "it's going to be okay" without really knowing that truth. Sometimes it's hard to stay patient and encouraging, but doing so gets easier when I remind myself that I come from the same place.