It's a yoga term that means: "The Spirit within me salutes the Spirit in you"
When I was a teen, my friend Mona Jones took me to the old rock quarry outside of Atlantic to swim. It was a deep clear pond that had a diving board. Yep a real board someone had rigged - way up high. And it didn't stick out far enough so you could just drop off it into the water. You had to run and leap.
I stood on that board a long time. And then I made my approach several times before I finally leaped. And I screamed. But I finally did it! Man that water was cold. And deep thank God. I took the plunge.
I approach many things in life like that diving board. I'm not a quick jumper and find many excuses not to jump. I might hit the dirt! The water will be cold. I think I hear my mom calling...
But when it comes down to it, life is meant to be lived. I don't want to spend my life sitting in the chair blogging about nothing. I want to regain my physical strength so I've been eyeing classes in various local publications to see what might help me do that besides the biking and walking I do on my own.
So I took a big leap and signed up for Gentle Flow Yoga. When I put my credit card number in and paid the fee I knew I was locked in. I'm too cheap to chicken out altogether. I was nervous all day yesterday - the first class was at 6:15 p.m. What if the new yoga mat I'd purchased wasn't cool? What should I wear? I knew where the school was but didn't know my way around it. Ugh. I asked Paul to reassure me and he said something like "suck it up buttercup".
I got there fairly early (thanks Dave B.) and staked out a spot. My outfit and mat were fine. I even broke out of my introverted self and introduced myself to Justine and Barb (so proud - I made a special effort to remember their names as I usually suck at that).
Gayle Vattese is the instructor for the class of about 20 women. We plunged right in and I just watched and imitated others to know what to do as Gayle coached and instructed. We concentrated on breathing - filling our lungs more fully than perhaps we'd done all day, and were thankful for it. It was quite spiritual - yet Gayle through in some smartass humor too. My kind of gal! She'd say something like, "press your ten fingers into the mat...eleven if you're lucky."
Paul and I peddled into the High Trestle Bridge from Madrid last Sunday - a gorgeous Iowa fall day! My shoulder is feeling good and the beer was cold after our ride.
1 comment:
Good luck with the mindfulness part. I suck at that. So hard to shut the brain off and be in the moment. Namaste!
Post a Comment