Monday, July 2, 2018

#Microblog Mondays: Making Friends With Yoga

Yoga is one of those things that I usually prefer to do alone: in my TV room, in front of one of my many DVDs that I probably know by heart now, wearing nothing but shorts and a sports bra, with no one to witness my excellent form, my complete faceplant, or the way that bridge pose or shoulder stands make my bosom suffocate me. 

My best friend loves to go to a yoga studio, in part because she found one near her that offers both sweaty yoga and relaxing yoga, and this crazy thing called Yoga Wall where you can be upside down for most of the hour, and in part because she has three children and the time including the drive is a blissful minivacation (and usually the best time for us to have a phone conversation uninterrupted). 

The only time I went to a yoga studio was when I went to Fertility Yoga, which was lovely when it served its purpose and then it kind of soured yoga classes for me. Maybe if I didn't associate yoga classes with opening my hips and increasing pelvic bloodflow, maybe if I didn't associate yoga with a horrid class with a substitute instructor who told us to do an opening mudra over our uteruses and do a visualization where we did our best to persuasively invite our babies floating in the ether to come to us...which might have been powerful had it worked out, or had I not miscarried a couple of weeks earlier and was stymied as to why my invitation was always rejected, why I was continually stood up in this regard. Acupuncture has similarly been ruined for me because I associate it with the ability inability to make my uterus receptive to an embryo or two, or my ovaries capable of making embryos that didn't whittle away in the dish.

I don't intend to go back to acupuncture, and I never intended to go back to a yoga class, until a margarita-fueled conversation with a friend resulted in signing up for Buti Yoga at the same studio where I take tap classes. The video that explained this form of yoga was terrifying, filled with very earthy, half-naked women sweating and whipping their hair around and talking about unleashing their inner power. Some of that sounds good, but most of it looked a little overwhelming, and like I wouldn't be able to keep up...but at the same time I was really, REALLY drawn to it. 

Well, surprise, we signed up and we both showed up last Monday and IT WAS AWESOME. There were no bare midriffs and no sweaty hair-whipping. Just a small group of women, sweating it out and opening chakras and dancing and doing plyometrics and feeling a very primal connection to our bodies. It sounds like I've drunk the kool-aid, but it was a seriously invigorating class. And I kept up! Some things I cannot do (I have never even heard of this "flipping your dog" thing you can do to extend a three-legged dog), but I just modify and nobody cares. And everybody is sweating like a beast. It's my new favorite workout.

I was initially nervous to be in a yoga studio again, because I remember many a shavasana where tears just rolled down my cheeks and settled into my cleavage as we did our final meditation and everything was so focused on the miracle of getting pregnant, a miracle that just never panned out for me (for long, anyway). But it feels amazing to go get out of my comfort zone, to join the company of other women carving out time in their busy schedules for fitness of body and spirit, and to be a part of a supportive environment that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what my body can't do, but rather helping it to get stronger in ways I absolutely can control. 

Want to read more #Microblog Mondays, likely ones that actually are micro and not cheating like this post? Go here and enjoy!

14 comments:

  1. Awesome you found a class that makes you feel good. It reminds me how I feel after a ballet barre class. All these ways you are reconnecting with your body are so wonderful. Sometimes we can forget we are all embodied beings.

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    1. Oooh, you do barre? That's another one I wouldn't mind trying, but it looks super hard, although I am appreciating super hard lately! :) It is wonderful to get more connected to my body and appreciate her for what she can do, rather than what she can't.

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    2. There are elements that are hard. I actually took a class on Saturday (see you inspired me!). Most of it I could do but there was a section done mostly from plank position and....nope lol. I was able to do a little bit leaning on my elbows. But like you say just modify as you get to know your body.

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    3. Definitely! Oh yay, I'm so glad you gave it a go! I feel like every class I modify just a teensy bit less. I am not shy about using the block or being like, NOPE, that ain't happening. I was proud to do full side planks today -- I had to kickstand three weeks ago. Progress, and the modifying is like scaffolding -- there's a gradual release of responsibility! :)

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  2. That's it. I'm coming to your neck of the woods to sit in your nook, gaze at your garden, eat Bryce's cooking, and flip my dog with you at Buti Yoga. As far as I know, that hasn't made it to my neck of the woods yet.

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    1. Please do! I bet you could flip your dog like a champ. I think mine would look more like breaking my dog... but there it is, a new life goal. Be able to flip my dog and then go home and eat Bryce's cooking and read in the nook!

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  3. This is great. So glad you found something that you like. I'm definitely a yoga-in-the-privacy-of-my-own-home kind of girl! There's no way I'm doing this in public - I'm seriously self-conscious. But I might see if there are any youtube classes I could try.

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    1. There are youtube options! There's a lot of bare midriffs in them, but I guess good for them? Ha ha... It really is a great workout!

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  4. Buti yoga is a new one for me. So pleased the class was awesome.

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    1. It was fantastic! I'd never heard of it until joining this studio for tap, but it's apparently making the rounds out and about.

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  5. Wow, that sounds like an awesome find! I hear you on the fertility yoga and acupuncture. Good for you for trying something different!

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    1. It really is a great find! And yeah, fertility kind of ruined all those things. Too many sad associations, feelings of inadequacy. This is the year of doing different things! So far, so good...

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  6. That is awesome! I love yoga, but I like the flow-y, hippy kind. I’m not real interested in sweating in a hot room...sounds like all of my worst nightmares!
    Have you ever heard of goat yoga?? Idk if it’s a thing where you are, but here in MD (and I know in LA) it exists...and it’s literally yoga with goats in the room that climb on you, etc. I am not really sure the theory behind it or whatever...but yeah. I am also not sure how I feel about it. I mean, I love me some goats but this seems a bit much lol please let me know if this is a thing in NY!!

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  7. I SERIOUSLY need to get back to yoga!! When I was trying to collect the shattered pieces of my life, post-infertility treatment, I went to see a counsellor who specialized in infertility & loss issues, and she highly recommended it. I did it for several years in our old community... the local community college, as part of its extension programs, offered yoga &/or yogalates (combination yoga & pilates) classes at a high school just a few blocks north of where we lived -- a series of 10 or 12 classes for what worked out to be about $10-12 per class. I didn't particularly like the pilates part, but the yoga was great. I do have a couple of DVDs & I know there are lots of classes online, but I think I need to have a class to go to, in order to actually make the time to DO it. I Googled a couple of yoga studios in the area a few months ago, but that's as far as I've gotten.

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