Yoga Class the Second

I went to yoga class again yesterday. This time I had proper clothing instead of jeans and I felt a lot less awkward. There was one other student, but mostly I was so focused on what I was doing that I wasn't worried about looking stupid.

Since I learned some of the basics of yoga in the first class (and, of course, since there was another, more experienced student,) the teacher sped things up a bit. She didn't have to take as long explaining things and took less time between repetitions. Also, we used straps to help pull ourselves deeper into some of the poses. 

I was pretty excited when, at the end of the hour-long lesson, she said we were going to do a shoulder stand. While every asana we had done was challenging and interesting, I thought this would be the most advanced pose yet. I had to laugh when I realized it was exactly like what we did in the living room when we were kids.

Credit: http://www.holisticonline.com/

After the shoulder stand was Corpse Pose, the second-to-last part of every yoga class. Corpse Pose = lay on your back, arms at your sides, face and palms toward the ceiling, legs stretched out, eyes closed, no tension anywhere in the body. You can hear the bass of the rock music playing in the gym and the clanky sounds of exercise equipment while the world goes on out there, but in the classroom, the noise is distant. Quiet music is still playing. I just lie there feeling how stretched and warm my body is and not really thinking about anything. We stay that way for maybe three to five minutes (any longer, and people would probably start falling asleep.) Then we sit up and tell each other "namaste," which is a word the teacher explained to mean, roughly, "The light in me sees and recognizes the light in you." It's the good-bye of the yoga class, and the closest we've come to any sort of deeper meaning or obvious crossing of cultures in any of the exercises.

Last week, I learned that a huge part of the philosophy of yoga is respecting your body's limitations and not forcing it to do things it doesn't want to do or can't do yet; you're even encouraged to rest on your knees with your forehead on the floor if you need a break during a class. I thought that respecting your body's limitations was such a cool idea. This week, I ignored that concept. I pushed myself for progress. Still, the class was relaxing and fun, and I can tell I'm getting better.