In-Depth: the second post
Since the last post, I’ve gone to two more yoga lessons, and tried really hard to be relaxed all the time; which I found to be quite hard.
In class, I made a LOT of people cry tears of joy as I told them about what my instructor/mentor told me to do.
But before I share that part of the story, I’d just like to explain the first impression that I got of yoga. So after signing up for the yoga course, I was told to get a yoga mat – no big surprise here. I decided to visit Lululemon because, I mean just visit their site and you’ll know right away that they know what they’re doing when it comes to yoga. Mats range from $28 to $82 and guess which one I got. The cheaper one of course, but I made sure that it was of good quality before getting it. Since I’m only a beginner, I felt that there was no need to invest a large sum of money just yet.
At my first class of yoga, one of the first things my instructor told our class was that “Yoga is not a competition. You are not competing with anyone, and no, you are not competing against yourself.” Which was…. a pleasant surprise. It seems to me that everything we do nowadays is somehow driven by competition and when I say everything, I mean everything. And then it just gets really stressful after a while. But yoga on the other hand is completely free of that competitive side which is a somewhat new aspect of looking at things for me. During class, I often find myself holding a position longer than I need to, and making myself go into ridiculous angles until I realize, “oh, I’m not supposed to push myself just yet”
So this, was my first impression on yoga. Even though I try really hard not to push myself too far, I still feel the improvement. I can finally breathe the way I should, and relax my mind, even just for one hour when I’m practicing yoga.
Now for the exciting part.
One crucial thing I learned from my mentor is that you must never just “sit” on the ground. You must pull all the flesh away from your hip bones so that you feel the ‘connection’ between the floor and your hip bones. Every class, it’s quite a sight to watch fully grown adults pulling their flesh away from their bottoms to feel the ‘connection’. Oh but that’s not it! In order to fully relax and open up your heart and body, my class has now mastered the art of “opening up our pelvic bones”. Why do you do that, one might ask, and I honestly could not tell you why. To be honest, I still don’t know if it’s pleasurable to do so, or if it really lets energy to pass through your body, but since my mentor tells us to do so and I trust her, I’ll just go along and try my best to open up my pelvic bones.
So that was the tip from the last couple of classes I went to. If there are any more of the interesting tips she throws at us, I’ll be sure to share it with everyone. Until then, goodbye!
*I’m sorry there are no photos in this post, I sincerely apologize. Edublogs seem to really hate me and it won’t let me upload a photo. But I will keep on trying! And I will succeed, so just wait patiently please. (:
