Feel Each Yoga Pose

Last week, I went to yoga class on a different day, so I had a different instructor. Of course, there is always a feeling of unfamiliarity with a new instructor and new faces filling the class, but I’ve got to squeeze in yoga whenever possible.  The class was still the same level from the same yoga studio, so I thought to myself, “How different could it be?”

Well, well, well, I could feel the difference. First of all, it must have been the hottest day I’ve ever spent in a yoga room. I found one of the few remaining spaces in the class, which happened to be right underneath the skylight (I later noticed), and – boy! – was the sun beaming that day. The ceiling fans were in motion, but they were dreadfully far away. As I stood there waiting, I noticed right away that my entire body had started to perspire even before entering into any pose. I can assure you I was not doing Bikram yoga but I guess, in a way, I was getting warmed up. It’s fine – sweat out the toxins, as they say.

The instructor was quite pleasant and the sequence of poses she took us through was almost exactly the same as those I have done from my regular instructor. However, I noticed that she made us hold each a bit longer. The length of time was not that long – perhaps just seconds but, paired with the Ujjayi breathing, it was certainly enough for me to feel the pull of my muscles. The introduction of each asana was given in Sanskrit as well as the more easily pronounced English version. That always helps to get me familiar with the asana names.

Since the poses were longer, the meditation time was shorter than usual, which I am completely ok with since I have not grasped the entire concept of meditation anyway. The cool thing was that while we were lying on the floor with the lights dimmed and our eyes closed, I felt a pair of hands on my foot. They were the hands of the instructor giving each of us a foot massage. That was a nice touch to the end of class.

By the way, I enjoyed holding the poses longer because I can really feel and concentrate on each pose. As I drove home, I could tell that certain parts of my body were feeling more limber and getting the attention that they needed.

[tags] concentrate on the yoga pose, sweat in yoga, stretching, trying new yoga instructor, meditation, muscles, yoga burn[/tags]