Reflections from Yoga Last Night

I'm cross-posting this with some minor edits, from my fitness blog.

To start, I haven’t been to a yoga class in just under 4 years. I started going during Monkey's first deployment when I found myself restless, stressed, and missing him very very much. I hadn’t slept well for two weeks. There was a yoga studio next to my dance studio and I decided to take a drop-in class one evening. Slept. Like. A. Rock. I don’t know if it was the physical exhaustion from sweating out half your body weight in a 100 degree room, or if I was actually able to find center and clear my mind long enough to fall asleep. But it was miraculous.

I kept it up until I either ran out of time, or money. I can’t recall which. Either way, I eventually fell out of it. I don’t even remember if I missed it. But I did remember how good it made me feel. Yet, I’ve been afraid to go back. I’m not sure where that’s coming from. I thought, perhaps I feared I would be “bad” at it after all this time. But I’m the kind of person who’s up for anything. I learned a long time ago to stop caring how I perceived myself in learning  a new skill. Everyone starts in the same place. I don’t even care if people judge me for “sucking” anymore. Whatev’s. This is my journey and I’m here for me.

I have yet to answer this question for myself. But last night, I went back to yoga. My schedule got all mish-mashed having to work late Tuesday night; so I decided to do an extra day at ME Fitness in NE Portland. After a quick TRX blast class, and 30 minutes on the ‘gluteal’ setting on the elliptical, I mustered up a pretend confidence and dropped in on the last yoga class of the night.
I giggle a little on the inside at hearing the CD of chimes and “Ommm’s” in the background. The perfectly 78 degree room warmed me from the inside out. I was excited for a good stretch after a hard 3 days of gym/dance/muay thai. I placed my rental mat on the empty floor and stashed my things in a cubby. I return to my mat to find that I have placed it in the wrong direction now that other students were arriving and eyeballing my miss-placed set up.

I lowered myself onto my newly correctly orientated mat, and started slowly stretching out in a very non-yogi style. Class begins and I’m delighted and disappointing at the same time. It was harder than I remember.

I’m never one to turn down a physical challenge, so I welcomed the extra workout after my previous hour. But, I was hoping for more of a pure stretch out. I understand there are many different types of yoga. I guess this one isn’t the stretchy kind. I enjoyed it regardless. I learned some new ways to pretzelfy myself in some position named after a bird. We performed lots and lots of downward dog, achieving an always needed entire-back-of-the-leg stretch.  I found myself wishing I hadn’t just ellipsed for 30 minutes prior. My shaking legs made me feel weak and disappointed in my performance. I decided I didn’t care. As long as I was pushing myself as hard as I could, I would be getting something out of it.

Next we moved to inverted positions. Well, I attempted to move to an inverted position. I can do a headstand all day long in a tripod position. Not so much in the elbows-on-the-floor-hands-behind-head position. I tried my hardest not to look like a duck chasing fish under the water with my tail feathers flitting around in the air. Also, I forgot about the T4 syndrome I’m recovering from. Owie. Guess I won’t be trying that again any time soon. Disappointing but probably a good idea.
Lastly, we returned to the floor to slow down, find center, and practice a few of our own “Oooommm’s”. At first I felt goofy, always starting a second after the others, but a smile crossed my face as I relished in the harmonies we were making. The lower voices of the lone male yogi, and the varied soft female voices created a harmonious chord which truly brought me joy. The energy gave a final peace to my evening.

I left feeling accomplished in the challenged and a little more tired than expected. But I remembered the familiar calm and comfort from 4 years prior when the practice was a necessity.  I drove home with a clear head and a calm mind.

Today, my neck is reminding me that I forgot about its injury, but otherwise, still relishing in the experience. However, I still have a hesitation about going back. Though I know that as soon as I get there I will be glad I did. I’m wondering where this internal reluctance is coming from. It is always thwarted once my feet are on the mat.

Any thoughts? Have you experienced this with things in your life?
Do you do Yoga? What is your favorite thing about it?

Another GIVEAWAY!!!

Hey guys, thought I would let you know that I've got another giveaway going on on my Fitness Blog. Here's the deets:

A few weeks ago I posted a review of Coromega’s delicious Omega 3 supplements. They not only taste better (as a matter of fact they are very tasty) than your traditional variations of Omega supplements, their patented emulsion process allows Coromega to be absorbed into your bloodstream 300% better than softgels.

Coromega is so sure of their claim that they invited me to take the Coromega 90 day challenge. I was given an Omega 3 test to check my levels, and I will take one tasty Coromega squeeze every day for 90 days. Afterwards, I will take the test again and see how my Omega levels have, presumably, risen. I will of course, share all the details here.

I will write a full post with updates along the way as soon as I receive my first test results.
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a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post about nothing.

I promise you that I have not been neglecting the blog because of my other blog. There really truly is nothing of note going on. The boat is doing boat stuff that I'm not allowed to talk about on here, and we're just kinda in a holding pattern getting sporadically pissed off at the Navy for the same ol' same ol' mostly out of frustration of a lack of schedule. You all know how that goes.

I guess there is some sort of news. The Navy birthday ball is coming up and I actually already have a dress. I just have to get a brooch for it, because it has been lost. Don't feel like getting all upset by explaining the how. It's just missing and now i need to find a replacement. There are several candidates on Etsy, I just need to pick on this week so make sure it gets here in time without having to over pay for shipping.

We're getting closer and closer (oh so very slowly) to Monkey's one-year-left mark. He decided quite some time ago that he is not reenlisting. A career in the Navy is for some, but not for us. We're excited to move into a new normal and really start our lives together. It's going to be a little scary, especially money-wise for a bit, but we're totally stoked to be figuring it all out together. :)

My offices are moving into a historic building in Fort Vancouver. So, we're literally in what was a military base. The idea seems cool, and the building is very neat. But, the whole scenario is a bit eerie for me. It just feels a little unsettling to be on a military base. Even being from the 1900's it still feels like Monkey's base and it's weird for me, for some reason. I know it's really going to sink in when he's deployed and I'm walking around a military base every day. Or, maybe I'll just get so used to it that I won't notice? I hope that's the case. I used to run through there on my lunch breaks and I would get super nostalgic and miss him like crazy, can't imagine what that's going to be like on a daily basis. Guess I'll find out.

We're sticking it out in this apartment for one more year. The rent is going to go up again but it's the best apartment I've ever lived in. I was thinking about moving into a cheaper place but Monkey wants us to move once he gets out so we can have a new shared space. Since I spend so much time in this apartment I think he feels like I have kind of claimed the territory. I won't have a problem 'unclaiming' it but I also don't mind a fresh start to go with our new lives. So, I'm not really going to argue. We kind of want to find something that is more central to our dancing activities anyway since we'll be able to do that much more often. Money permitting.

Mm, I think that about it. I always end up writing more in these "I have nothing to say" posts than I think I'm going to. I guess I just have to sit down and start writing. Anyway, that's what's up. Catch ya later.