Yoga

I never realized, until I started doing yoga, that I never breathe.

It’s true. In my real, day-to-day life I do not breathe. Ever. That I am aware of.

The only time I breathe is when I am doing yoga.

I used to do yoga several mornings a week. But then I started working full time. And I can’t make any yoga classes, either before or after work.

Recently, they started Saturday morning classes. And I have been going to those. When I can. And I love them.

Because I get to breathe.

And relax. And stretch. And contort my cranky, middle-aged body into all sorts of bizarre postures.

For an hour and a half.

When I am all done, I feel totally relaxed and at ease. It makes me wonder how it would be if I breathed all the time. In my real life and all. But I don’t.

So, it is even more important for me to get to yoga on Saturday mornings. So I know I am going to breathe at least once a week.

It makes a huge difference in my life and how I feel.

This coming week is “Yoga Camp.” It goes from 7 to 8:15 am, Monday through Friday. I can actually make those times and still get to work before 10. So, I signed up. I probably won’t be able to move after the first few mornings -- and Lord knows how my body will react when I start breathing more than once a week!

The theory behind this “camp” is that we learn a yoga routine by heart. And then we can do it on our own, at home.

Rrrright.

I am not sure that is going to happen. I mean, yoga instructors are always saying things like, “Now when you do this posture at home….”

And I always look around to see how other people respond to this. There may well be people who do yoga at home, but by and large I think the whole reason these people in the class go to yoga in the first place is so they actually do it. They know they would never do it alone, at home, on their own.

Me either.

I think it will be interesting to see what happens after I do yoga for over an hour, five mornings in a row. It will mean I can’t go swimming this week. But I will definitely be getting exercise. And relaxing. And breathing. Hell, if I breathe five days in a row, my body probably won’t know how to handle it!

Our yoga instructor started off class this morning with the following poem, and I just wanted to share it:

I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise
I choose to risk my significance,
to live
so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came
to me as blossom
goes on as fruit
-- Dawna Markova

So, here’s to living!

And breathing!!!