There's something so relaxing yet challenging about practicing yoga. I really pushed myself and came back from class totally exhausted....I see sore muscles tomorrow. I love the stretch I get from class and being able to make the moves form to what my body is telling me. I feel so much more centered and at peace with myself.
ZEN SARAH! (or, well, I wish this was actually a picture of me)
I wrote an article about breathing a while ago, discussing the benefits of concentration on your breathing during workouts. Yoga is based all around different types of breathes and the timing of inhalations and exhalations. I find it important to listen closely to my instructor so I get the most benefits from my stretches and flows.
I also love the fact that the instructor really seems to mix up the flows. Last week we went through the full warrior positions and this week we concentrated on other parts of the body. I love not knowing exactly what is coming next.....it keeps me more focused on the poses and less about what is coming next. Better to live in the now than the future right?
I always feel like I'm in dance again during yoga because many of the moves and stretches are similar to what we used to do during ballet class. The tree pose looks like a passe,
not to mention the dancer pose.
Tonight we went straight from tree to dancer and I was have a particularly hard time balancing myself one after another. I was pretty stable and strong during tree, but my muscles did not appreciate balancing on one foot for that long....sad! This ex-dancer has lost all her dancer power :( Next time I will get this. Last week I was struggling with the tree, it was just not happening....so this week I told myself "you can do this, breathe, spread your roots into the ground" and it seemed to work. I remember my old dance teacher, Grace, explained to us one time about sending roots into the earth through our feet in order to really ground yourself into the floor. She explained that if you can ground your feet while also pulling up from the top of your head, balance will come with ease.......and guess what, it works!
There is one pose I'm still a little nervous to try.....
(as the big strong guy next to me was clearly finding this difficult, I got a little concerned with my own ability to pull it off). I usually just wimp out and put my knee down as a stabilizer, one step at a time right?
I just love trying new poses and challenging my body, it's my way of making me feel good.
No comments:
Post a Comment