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Friday, April 04, 2003
Early morning, April Four...
... and I'm freakin' tired. The man made me come in an hour and a half early for some network nonsense, so I'm groggy while bloggy.  As you may (or more likely, may not) recall, a couple months back I shared the painful details of my very first yoga experience. "Ashtanga", they called it. "Absolutely Insane", I called it. Took me days to recover, and nearly turned me off of yoga entirely... not that I was really into the whole idea to begin with. But hey, you make a promise to your smiling wife, and you gotta keep it. "Give it another chance!" she said. "I swear not all yoga is like that! It was just the wrong class for you. Let's try again. Pleeeeeaase?" Ok, ok, ok. But it had better be easier than "Ass-tangle". So she went ahead and signed us up for a series of intro classes at Beacon Light Yoga. Six weeks of Wednesdays, hour and a half long classes, with about ten other yoga novices. This past Wednesday was actually the final class, and yes... I am alive. In fact, you'll notice I didn't once complain about it. No Thursday morning 'ouch!' entries, despite the fact that I definitely felt seriously sore on certain days. What did I learn? I learned I like yoga. There, I said it. I like it, despite my natural aversion to things that are even remotely associated with an over-the-top hippy-dippy lifestyle. Yoga's changed a lot... it's not just for go-with-the-flow space cadets and hardcore health nuts anymore. Apparently, it's for everyone, although you'd have a hard time convincing most men of that. Of the dozen people in our class, there were a grand total of two guys. Actually, two other guys came to the first class... and were never seen again. From what our instructor said, 2 out of 12 was actually a high percentage for male attendance. It'll be interesting to see if those numbers start to change now that more mainstream acceptance seems to be happening. I mean, if I can do this stuff, and enjoy it, anyone can. Seriously. Breathing techniques, relaxation poses, meditation, balancing poses, and of course, the super stretchy action. A good mix of everything, actually. The instructor seemed to know her stuff, our classmates were relatively cool (well, except for the goofball who had to vocalize every stretch she did with a near-sexual "ooooooohhh!", or maybe an "aaaaahhhhh!", and a dash of "uuuuuhhhhh!". frightening.), and it seemed most of us where there for the same reason. We sat in a circle during the first class and had to explain "what brought us to yoga". Aside from my obvious answer ("Uhhh... my wife did?"), it was my daily stress level and a way to reduce it that brought me there, and that was the case for just about all of our classmates. A bunch of wound-up Bostonians looking for a way to chill out... to relax... to... get more in touch with our bodies? Yeah, that's what they tell you. "Inner-peace" and all that. The war started the day after our first class, and the instructor ended each one with a wish for peace to find the minds of the world's leaders. Inner-peace, outer peace, one is easier than the other. If I feel powerless given the state of the world, at least I can work on my own mental and physical well-being, right? Right. And so I did. I can honestly say I don't feel the same as I did when I walked into that first class six weeks ago. My body feels a bit different, my brain does too. I'm a little more relaxed, a little less freaked, I've got a relatively healthy perspective on where I'm at... I actually haven't felt quite so comfortable in a long time. I'm not sure yoga's responsible for all that, but I do know that I'm continuing on with classes now that I'm finished up with the intro. Oh, jeez. Does this mean I've turned into one of those 'yoga people'? Nope, that isn't official until I don't feel like a total dork going "Ooooohhhhhhmmmm...". And I can't see that happening anytime soon.  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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