Day 66 - Being a yogi again

Early 2009, I threw myself into the world of ashtanga yoga. It was one of those things I had always wanted to do, and I enjoyed it so much that I kept up with my downward dogs, upward dogs, warriors and sun salutations for the whole year. It was evident that yoga improved my posture, gave me great flexibility, core strength, toned arms and a calm mind. However when 2010 came around I started to get lazy and started going to classes less frequently, always blaming the weather. But hey, I was still going. When 2011 rolled in, I had completely surrendered to laziness - I could count the number of times I had gone to yoga class that year with both hands.

I carried the guilt of not practising with me for a long time. I wanted to get back into it, I really did... but yoga was one of those things that brutally kills you once you've stopped doing it for a long period of time.

But today, still feeling the after-effects of my indulgent, gluttony weekend, I got changed after I got home and headed off for yoga class with Jon's advice of "Don't think, just do" echoing in my head.

To my surprise, I soon found myself powering through the poses, flowing through the sequences smoothly - I couldn't recall the order of poses in my head, but my body seemed to run on auto-pilot and took on a life of its own. Just 10 minutes into the sun salutations I was already cursing at the number of times we had to do the caturanga dandasana (I call this pose the "one-way push up in slow motion"), and 15 minutes on my body was trembling as I held my poses. With every standing, sitting, inverting and back-bending series, my spine and limbs were contorted and stretched in all directions, and my body was screaming, "What the hell are you doing to me woman!"

It was hard work, yet I couldn't help but notice the intense stillness in my mind throughout the entire series. I truly breathed deeply and appreciated the moment.

And at the end of it came my favourite pose - the relaxation shavasana (corpse pose LOL). I look forward to this pose every time, heck I begin looking forward to it when I'm on my way to class! It is pure bliss. Pure. Bliss. You lie on the mat after the long and tiring session, and every part of your body feels like it weighs a ton as you sink into the floor with your body still warm from vinyasa. Sometimes I doze off during this 5 minute pose!

On my way home, my body felt heavy yet strangely lightweight, both at the same time. I was overwhelmed with relaxation - in the past I often mistook this bizarre feeling as exhaustion, until I realised that I wasn't overly tired, I was just extremely relaxed!

Looking forward to a good sleep tonight, but not looking forward to being in a world of pain tomorrow.