Wonderful relaxation – but do I fall asleep?!

Over the summer, I managed to keep up with the challenge of four classes a week for 3 months.  There were some weeks when I didn’t make 4 classes at the studio because I had a trip back to England, and then to America Despite these breaks, I still managed to attend the studio four times a week while in St John’s and then, while away from the studio, I managed to keep up practice on my own.  At first I found this harder to do, I found that away from the studio, I was spending time on my mat trying to think up the exact sequence or trying to remember every pose to a class, and feeling disappointed or inadequate about my routine; but by the time I went to America and took my yoga mat along, I felt much more confident about letting the poses come and letting the flow between the poses come without worrying about the next step.  I found that I became more relaxed and could easily spend longer on the mat and enjoy it more. 

This summer has been great, I feel truly honoured that I have been able to take up the opportunity to try out something new and all the time, I have been made to feel so welcome by all the instructors.  Each time I go to a class, I feel like a sponge, eager to soak up as much of the wisdom, experience and guidance that each class and each instructor brings.  I leave each one feeling like I have learned something new and amazing.  What a feeling! 

I was going put out a list of my experience over the summer, well I suppose a list is a bit static and boring for this, I will just write out a series of thoughts and see what it turns out like!  That sounds more like it!

Healthy in body mind and spirit:  At the beginning, I guess I thought of the classes as more of a fitness class, and now at the end, they are way more than any fitness class.  Do they make you fit?  Yes, on the fitness side, the strengthening and stretching along with the holding of poses will get you fit, that is for sure, but the best thing about it is I don’t think of it as a fitness class.  I guess I think about it now more of a lifestyle class, guiding me on staying healthy all round, inside and out.  It has helped me to be more healthy in what I am eating, drinking, my posture while sitting at a desk, helped me to get more relaxing sleep and also on how to ‘zone out’ of annoyances like that screaming child that I always seem to get sat behind on a flight.  Any flight I take, and I fly quite a bit, you can guarantee that the ‘naughty, screaming I want everything child’ will be sitting, yep right in front of me.  This is when I would like to have some of those pricy fancy sound-cancelling headphones!  But this time round, I had relaxing music on, did some breathing exercises and I was relaxed!   Thanks yoga! 

Wonderful relaxation – but do I fall asleep?!   Another thing has puzzled me lately in that I have been feeling so relaxed at the end of a class that I am so ready for the relaxation at the end, so ready in fact that I eagerly settle into it to the point that if it wasn’t for the helpful chimes that brings everyone out, I am not sure I would leave the studio at all!  Am I falling asleep?  I don’t know I can’t quite tell but sometimes, when we are so nicely brought back out of our relaxation I feel like I have been there all night long.  It is after these classes, and on evenings when I walk back home, that I can feel light, and free and almost like skipping home and breaking into song!  A few occasions I have hummed a few notes along the way, without realizing it!  It is a pretty good feeling!  But I don’s think I am supposed to fall asleep, but how do I know if I am, interesting..

And also, accepting people as they are.  Yoga has helped me to remind myself to accept people as they are, to get along with or not to get along with someone is fine, but to be non-judgmental when around different people every day is a quality that I want to have and I like having.  Yoga reminds me to stay this way, and even to recognize emotions in people.  I believe that it is my Yoga that has allowed me to be more observational and to pick up on subtle cues in my friends and family, and even strangers that perhaps before I may have missed.  While back in England, I reconnected to some of my friends I have known for years, but perhaps not been as close to due to my travelling habits.  I became closer to my sister than I have been in many years and our bond has become so much stronger now.  My sister has always meant the world to me, but this time I was back, we spent time reconnecting and focusing on each other in a way that I had not done for a long time.  Why the difference?  I personally think that in our everyday lives, we can become busy, and our minds busy to the point that we can listen and be a part of someone’s life, without truly listening and feeling it.  I did not knowingly do this before, but now my feelings are so much more open, I can pick up on the subtle things, ask better questions, listen truly and openly, be objective, supportive and honest.  I was these things before, in a way, but not now compared to how I have felt since allowing myself to open up through yoga.

So I owe yoga a lot, to reconnect, to relax and to feel good, it has been all of those things.  And now, as we move into the fall, Bobby and Meaghan have asked that I carry on writing the blog.  I am so happy about this!  To be able to continue this journey and write about it is wonderful and amazing, and I cannot thank Bobby, Meaghan and all of the wonderful instructors at the studio enough.  They do amazing things and by attending the studio, I feel amazing and inspired! 

I am going to continue to go to the studio when I can, and along with this I am going to share some more everyday life, stories, things I find along the way, photos, sayings, strange things, interesting things, who knows what I may share with you all!  I hope it will be interesting, perhaps entertaining and maybe some people will enjoy reading it, I will do my best!

See you in the studio!

Kate