"You don't work on the yoga...

...the yoga works on you."


My lovely & courageous friend, Kate (http://www.yourcourageouslife.com/) shared this thought with me yesterday. And it's been swirling around in my head since then. It seems like a lovely idea, and I began to wonder if perhaps it was as true for me as it has been for Kate.

But perhaps I am getting slightly ahead of myself...

About a week and a half ago, Kate graciously invited me to come with her to Funky Door Yoga (www.funkydooryoga.com) in Berkeley for a Bikram Yoga class. In fact, she gifted me with a month's worth of yoga, which I humbly accepted with tremendous gratitude and awe. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I'm the kind of person that will pretty much try anything once, so why not, right? Plus, my ongoing struggle with hamstring pain that's cramped (read: stopped altogether) my running routine leaves me even more open to other options for breaking a sweat.

Wednesday morning. Its about 45 degrees outdoors & 105 degrees indoors. I'm wearing a snug bra-top & shorts that I previously wouldn't have been caught dead in outside of my apartment. Oh, and did I mention that it's 6am??? The instructor welcomes me warmly (seems appropriate, right?) and gives me one task - to simply stay in the room for the entire 90 minutes. Challenge accepted, and I'm happy to report, challenge accomplished!

The class was an exercise in facing many challenges, both physical & mental, head-on. As someone who constantly compares herself to others, this was the opportunity to notice what other people were doing (often holding the poses more correctly than me, but not always), and simply say to myself, "Oh, now I get it. My arms need to be here. And my hips need to be there."

This is a FAR cry from my norm, which usually goes something like this, "God, I'm never going to be able to do it as well as that girl - look at her abs! I'll never have a core that's strong enough. And who the hell does this guy over here think he is? How in the hell can I ever expect to pull my right leg up 90 f-ing degrees while standing on the left one?! I might as well just quit now."

I'm proud to say that while some of that old self-defeatist attitude crept in at the start, it quickly melted away, leaving lots of room for accepting myself exactly as I was.

Hmmmmmm... I think that maybe I could really start to like this "practice."

So, after class, I'm feeling so good about myself (in spite of not being able to do all the poses very well, if at all, and the myriad places in my body where I felt stretching & pulling like never before), that I tell Kate that I'm coming back on Friday. And I do! And it's even better!

Over the weekend, I meet a new friend, Alexia, a fellow runner who also struggled with hamstring/IT band issues in the past. Out of the blue, she says to me, "Oh, you have a bum hamstring, too? You know what saved me? Bikram Yoga!"

Oh, you Universe, how wonderfully synchronous you are. You knew that I needed a "reason" to justify to myself that something as "self-indulgent" as yoga is really exactly what I need - another way for me to take care of myself first! And to LOVE MY BODY just as it is! And to feel hopeful about my nagging injury! And to see that "normal" people do yoga, not just the crazy-hippie-dippy types! And, and, and.... :)

Another layer to the synchronicity of it all? Monday morning, not-so-bright but verrrrrry early at 6am, Kate's beautiful face is looking at me outside the hot room, and her voice is sharing with me that Bikram is the "Marathon of Yoga." Further proof that the universe is truly unfolding exactly as it should.

And verdict on original proposition: It is working on me.


p.s. Currently on day 3 of a self-imposed 5-days-in-a-row Bikram goal. Boo-yaaaaaah.
p.p.s. Who wouldn't want a piece of this?