Yoga friends

Not sure how it is elsewhere, but in New York, yoga class is a pretty solemn affair. I have been attending the same studio for 2+ years and very few people in the classes speak to each other.

I broke the ice the other night when I started talking to a fellow regular about sports we have played. I had a breakthrough in my forearm stand and figured out that I don't need 3 more feet of arm length...I need to lengthen my middle back instead of collapsing into myself. In my terms this means think of reaching up energetically through my back, instead of "stacking" my way up. I know, I know, IT'S BOTH.

We started having a conversation about mental imagery and understanding where one's weight or focus is in each pose. I told her that I often imagine sitting with my weight in a saddle in warrior/triangle/pyramid. I also imagine my weight as a bird balancing on a perch (my shoulders) in inversions. I was baffled that we were having a 5-minute conversation about this at all.

Interestingly enough, my upper back/"back heart" has been a major issue of space, knotting, and tension lately...it's trying to find its place in my practice. I have gotten this far without engaging it fully, I think an awakening is in order for fall...

"Who wants to do another full set of weighted leg lifts?"

Yoga teachers can be so very cruel. Yesterday afternoon, while I was working hard and sweating on my mat in Yoga Sculpt, our teacher posed the above question to the class. Only one person raised a hand, but we all had to do another full set of weighted leg lifts anyway. Majority rule? Not hardly. Our glutes and spines are better off for it, no doubt, but I'll admit to silently cursing the rogue masochist in the back row who raised her hand and asked for more when the rest of us wanted to teleport far, far away.

Lately, I've observed that most of my friends are doing some form of yoga with regularity... mostly in a heated room. How did this happen? We're in our early 30s and used to meet at shows and throw back drinks like we now congregate in studios and throw down our mats... usually with just as much frequency, enthusiasm, that predictable feeling of vague, unspoken dread. A few of us have stopped drinking entirely, but but most have just scaled back. The drinks happen less and less these days, in inverse proportion to the downward facing dogs, if you will. It's worth mentioning that very few of my friends have kids, so the sudden yoga commonality can't be chalked up simply to Settling Down. I don't really know what's caused it, other than that we have a) the money b) the time and c) the access to yoga studios. I have some ideas about the source of the trend, but I'm not ready to share them.

I can only speak for myself, and what yoga does for me, quite frankly, is reinforce my sanity. In a wildly spinning world, my mat is the still point, something I can always be certain of, somewhere I am safe. Practicing yoga helps me be the best version of myself. I am kinder, calmer, and more resilient as a result of my time on the mat. It's easy to not go to class for a few days, then get caught up in a longer cycle of not making enough time for myself. The moment I walk into that heated room and roll out my mat, however, I remember my love for yoga, and no matter how hard class may be, or how many sets of weighted leg lifts are involved, I leave class wishing I didn't have to, and wanting to come back soon.

EVEN BETTER quote of the day:

"6. Don't forget, you're gonna have to walk home all sweaty and homeless-looking after, so bring some flip flops or something."

"Yoga's metaphysics diagnoses the human condition as a state of suffering due to ignorance whose specific form is misidentification of the Self with materiality."

-Gregory P. Fields