>Yoga

>”Yoga is a metaphor for life.” I wish I was the original writer of these words but I am not. I thought them today though. I googled the phrase and apparently many people have thought the very same thing because there were a ton of finds for the phrase. Today was yoga day. I started yoga three weeks ago. Every week I look forward to it more and more. To many people yoga is exercise. A way to get more fit, have a tighter butt, or because it is the “in” thing to do. I thought these very things when I signed up for the class.I also wanted to become more flexible due to back problems. Yoga has become so much more than a wish for a better butt!

I am learning to breathe. Breathing is something that our bodies do for us. We don’t have to think about it. we just do it. Yoga has taught me to slow down, think about my breathing, and to move my body with my breath. I have learned to be in the moment. sometimes just for a few seconds, other times for minutes. It is hard not to revert back to writing the grocery list while in downward dog but I am doing it! It is amazing when you are synching your movements with your breath. To feel your body move together with the air that you draw in is amazing. I know that if I slowed down everyday and just breathed….truly synchronized my breath to whatever I was doing, life might just flow a little easier! For everything I did and said to have purpose and meaning. Instead of the hurried crazy life I sometimes lead. As you breathe and move together in yoga, you are purposeful. You are moving and breathing together. What would my life be like if I slowed down and took slow deep breaths with everything I did? Or if I thought a little deeper about what I am doing and more importantly, what I am saying.

I am learning how to be so still, so focused, that I can feel my heart beating in my chest. I never knew that was possible. It is so rare for me to be that quiet and still. When I get to that place and am so quiet, so focused on whatever pose we are doing, it is so exciting to me when I can feel the thump-thump of my heart. I swear sometimes that I can hear it too. I wonder what would happen if I allowed myself to be that still, that quiet, that focused everyday. What would I hear? What would I see? Maybe I would listen to a friend instead of talking incessantly. Maybe I would see a butterfly as it flies from its cocoon as I am in the drive thru at the bank.

I am learning to take baby steps. Nobody starts doing yoga and becomes a perfect yoga master in a day…or a week…or even months. Yoga takes a long time to learn. Sometimes it takes even years before you can feel proficient. But all along you are learning. You are learning the poses, the order of the different routines, how to breathe. Your muscles are learning with your brain. They are learning how to bend a little more, how to stretch with the movement of your breath. They are becoming more and more flexible every time you stretch or move. You find that each yoga session you can stretch further and easier. Life is so much like that. It is baby steps. You go further and further down your path, not realizing that you are learning all the way. That there are lessons all around. It is only after you go down your path and look back do you realize the growth that was happening.

I am learning awareness. I am so aware of my body now. I am feeling more loving, more tolerant. Showing kindness to my body and the changes that are happening ever so slowly. Through yoga I am becoming aware of so many muscles I wasn’t aware of. Ways to breathe that I never thought about. Moments of stillness, sereneness, QUIET nothingness that I never thought I could achieve. I am learning the gift to myself of just pure silence and how golden it is. That might sound pure cheesemiester but it is so true. It has always been so hard for me to be quiet. I have always had so much to say! Or so I thought….how much of it was really important and how much of it was just noise? I am trying to find purpose when I speak now. Truly think about what I say before I say it. Is it truly purposeful? This is hard for me. I am finding so much peace on my little magic carpet, or yoga mat as some may call it! It really does take me way to another place. I never thought I could find a way to quiet my mind. I am learning though! I am learning to achieve quietness for myself outside the yoga studio as well. Turning off the radio in the car. Turning off the TV while I am home. Learning to be ok in the silence. My body is moving in ways I never thought possible. I am learning to breathe and move together. It feels good. I feel proud for the soreness I feel the next day. the soreness that is not painful, just slight aching in muscles I have never been sore in before!

It is exciting and wonderful. I await Thursday mornings with so much energy now! I have always had trouble with doing things consistently. I have joined a ton of gyms, Weight Watchers, and other things in my quest for health and weight loss. I have not stuck to any of them. I am going into my 6th week of yoga and I am more excited about it every week. I am not losing tons of weight nor do I have a yoga butt….yet. I am achieving so much more though. I am finding peace. Kindness to myself and my body. Quiet. Awareness.

I love it. In quiet, serene baby steps yoga is changing my life. Namaste.

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