So Hot Yoga y’all!!!!! Today. Seriously. I walked out of the room twice because I could not decide if I was going to throw up or faint or both. Let me backtrack to an earlier adventure with my friend Kris Cox many years and pant sizes ago!!!
Kris and I had the bright idea to do P90X or 98 or some number. It was a video of sadistic exercise that you did daily. We did the first 3 days and then we decided that we would skip to the yoga one because surely that would be a break!!!! Yoga, it’s just yoga, stretching and such so we should have no issues. We kept looking at each other about 30 minutes in, with sweat and fear all over our faces. It was BRUTAL!!! But It was just yoga!!! News Flash Yoga is a workout, don’t kid yourself.
I thought about that today while in a sculpt Yoga class, about 35 minutes in. Right before I was about to crash I was puffed up and proud of myself. I was doing it all, weights and stretching and hot as hell room and all. It felt like 100 plus degrees but I am sure that is a slight exaggeration. I thought “Heck yeahI am doing it and I am doing it full throttle” and then I wasn’t!!!
I started to feel like I was going to faint or throw up or both and I kept trying to talk myself into sticking it out!!! So many things going through my head!!! What will people think if I walk out? Surely I can work past this feeling? You can do it, don’t quit!!! Then other voices hey Karen you have made it 35 minutes, way to go!!! Who cares about you walking out? You need to take care of yourself and you can try again!!!! So I did what I could and sauntered back into the room for the favorite cool down part with a fancy name where you lay there and deep breath and you are thankful for what your body has just done!!!!
Looking back, another thing that I did as a young person was to throw myself fully into the hard work out and if I was not on the verge of killing myself, it was not a workout. And when we got to the end of the class where you lay there and stretch and all that malarkey, I would find a reason to leave. I could not have been more bored with slowing down and doing what I perceived as nothing. I did not get at all the idea of a pause in my workout or my life!!!
Today, I am so very different from the girl that did not know how or when to slow down. I saw slowing down or hitting pause as a waste of time. There was a time when I did not understand why people took lunch breaks, or coffee breaks, or actually any kind of break when they could be productive!!!!!! To be honest I did not like holidays because they interfered with my work life.
I am so thankful that I now know that Yoga is not just Yoga and that the pause at the end is a very important part of the process. I am also thankful that it is a practice and if I have to stop and catch my breath, that is just fine too!!! I have a funny feeling not one person was thinking about me walking out of the room for a breather!!! They were all caught up in their breath and their practice.
Ps. My daughter challenged me to write 1,666 words a day for a November writing challenge so here you go!!! I will put something on paper each and every day to make that goal!!! So this one is 653 words but who’s counting!!!??? I am, and thankful to be counting each and every breath with gratitude!!!