I went to a yoga class last Friday night, run by a wonderful woman I work with, Dee Parkinson. It had been a full on work week with late nights, challenges and changes. I finished with my last client just in time to don some stretchy pants, eat two squares of dark chocolate (hey, it’s good for you!) and get to the community hall.
It was dimly lit, with quiet music and people lying down with their legs up the wall. Made me a little nervous. I’m not really a yoga person. Dance I love, but I never really got into yoga classes. I think I understand something of the experience of yoga, meaning union, as a freeing of blocks in the body and a breathing into all of life, but the classes never quite worked into my timetable.
She said “lie down”. Gratitude. I lay down and put my legs up the wall. “Just be” she said. OK.
Over the next 90 min, my eyes shut for half of it, my body was gently turned and coaxed from this position to another with so much time to sink way past the stretch and wobble into a deep letting go. What did she say? Like merging into water. Once I felt gentle, beautiful tears behind my eyes. At other times it brought an opening and an energy flow that was ecstatic, I could have stayed there forever, the last woman on the dark floor.
Woven through was a little information here, a gentle touch there. Nurturing.
When I left I felt my body in a new way and loved the all over tingling and freedom.
Best thing for me though – it was all so slow and gentle. No challenge or “push through” here, just a gentle opening, an invitation into feeling and aliveness.
If yoga to you means “physical challenge”, I encourage you to find and experience something slow and beautiful in your local area. Try searching under Dru Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Kundalini Yoga or Integral Yoga.
