eous, had a headache and finally ended up on the floor. It turns out I was hyperventilating due to stressful circumstances aka hating my job. Trust me people, when your job starts becoming a health hazzard, it's time for a change. Anyway, my doctor told me to relax which is something I've never been able to do, even the word relax makes me nervous. Once again he told me to try yoga or some other form of relaxation therapy where I could focus on my breathing. So despite my misgivings about yoga I decided to give it a try and go on a quest for my inner peace and tranquility, like there is such a thing. I went online and bought a yoga dvd seeing as I'm not the go-out-join-group-and-do-stuff-together kinda girl. Now I can curse and sweat in the privacy of my own home and boy, did I curse.It starts out easy with a lot of breathing excercises which were just what the doctor ordered but breathing at a pace of six breaths a minute is not only hard (to breath that slow anyway) but also got me feeling aggitated, get on with it already! Not a good start. Then came the sun salutations, the warrior poses, the upwards and downwards facing dog,... which all seem very simple in theory. It turns out I can't even stand still without falling over. T
hose who know me will probably not be surprised seeing as I have some mild balance issues. Besides continuously falling over (3 bruises people!), I simply could not bend the way I was supposed to so either those intructors have no bones or I have the flexibility of an eighty-year-old woman. The best example is downwards facing dog (left) which seems easy but I could not get my palms and the soles of my feet on the ground while streching my legs. It's just impossible! And that's one of the easy ones! After fifty minutes and only 4 poses that I could actually do without falling, breaking something or tearing a muscle, I called it quits.Right now, inner chaos seems healthier.
1 comment:
Don't be discouraged by yoga if you can't replicate what the instructors are doing. They have been doing it for years and have trained their bodies to move like that. It is VERY hard to put your heels on the ground in down dog and unless you are just extremely and naturally flexible you won't be able to do it on the first try. Just focus your mind and body on getting as close to it as you can. Their is no failing in yoga.
One thing I try to stress to friends who try yoga is that it is about you. It is about your mind and your body and what you can do in that moment. It takes a lot of practice to gain the balance and flexibility you need to do the poses. So don't be discouraged. Have a chair nearby to help you balance if you need to. It's all about focus. Focus your mind solely on what your body is doing, don't let it wander.
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