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I've been debating on adding "yoga class" to my weekly calendar for months now and finally received the final push from the Universe last week when my gal pal sent over a CrowdSavings deal (shout out to all the Groupon-esque programs out there; I'm loving all the fun savings!!) for a Bikram Yoga studio just a few blocks from my apartment. $39 for 30 yoga classes, a $315 value. Click, click, enter payment info...and I'm booked into sweating my ass off 3 times a week for the next 8 weeks.
Wednesday night was my first class and suffice to say I have never....EVER...sweat so much in my life. I think the closest I've even come to sweating so much was when I once woke up with a 102 fever at a friends house. I've done yoga classes many times in the past but have always been wary of the Bikram style, simply because extreme heat typically makes me...well...cranky. In a room heated to 105°F with a humidity of about 40%, how could I possibly feel good? But this style has become all the rage with my fitness savvy friends and thus I decided to jump on the bandwagon. Also, I had a really cute new sports bra and pair of running shorts I wanted to try out...(what? c'mon. at least I'm honest). Here were my initial thoughts (most of which popped up mid-bendytwistysweaty mode): 1. Am I sweating from my forearms? And my knees...the fronts of them? Is that even possible? 2. Girl in the turquoise tank in front of me--you are good. And by good I mean great. I'm completely jealous of you and your yoga skills to pay the bills (not to mention your totally magazine ready abs). Werk it, honey. 3. I danced for 16 years and frankly, I never should have stopped. This practice would be so much easier if I'd stayed in my uber-flexible state. Dear sweet little body with muscles that resist my pretzel attempts, we have a lot of work to do. 4. The strength of some of these classmates is amazing (is he balancing on a toe right now?); where has all my strength gone? I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be comparing myself to anyone and just focusing on my own body and breath. Inhale...exhale....Damn that girl has strong legs.... 5. My friends are so great to try this with me. I'm thankful we are sharing this experience with eachother. I'm also thankful their faces are equally as flushed and sweaty as mine. And their arms. And knees. 6. The class is over? 90 minutes has gone by? I made it without keeling over? I only felt a bit woozy once and was easily able to re-center myself. Winner! 7. I feel amazing walking out of this class. I feel like a cleaned out version of myself. I was so tired 90 minutes ago and now I have a renewed-yet-not-overwhelming energy. 8. I'm hungry. I loved it. I see the potential for this class to not only help strengthen my physical body and tone out my wobbly bits a tad, but also to teach me to reach deep within and recognize my emotional and spiritual strength as well. When we push ourselves physically we can often discover amazing things about our limitless potential emotionally; we can be renewed, refreshed, refocused, reenergized. Life is about finding the best possible version of ourselves and bringing it out in full force--bringing it out to share with others; to inspire them, motivate them and connect us all on wavelengths of love and joy and light. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us . . . It’s not just in some of us; it is in every one. And as we light our own, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” - extracted from Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural speech. Share your light, my darling readers. The world is waiting to bask in it :) In Gratitude, Trish
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