Yoga Practice at A Funeral Hall

When I arrived in Japan for my grandmother’s funeral, I went at around 10 pm to the funeral hall where my grandmother was kept. As her closest family members, we stayed at a tatami room in the funeral hall with my grandma, preparing to stay up all night because we had to keep the incense sticks burning over the next few days until she was cremated.

Well, I was tired but I stayed busy by talking with all my family and relatives who I didn’t see so often. It helped us all stay up till 2 in the morning. Thanks to the jet-lag, however, I woke up every hour and couldn’t sleep past 5 the next morning. Yeah, I didn’t feel like I had slept but I got up anyway. And because of me, everyone started waking up. Whoops, sorry everyone….

During the day, everyone was busy going in and out of the room. At one point, there were only four of us watching grandma in the tatami room: my mother, my cousin, her daughter and me. Somehow, we started talking about postures, exercises, and stretches. I was so proud to tell my family what I do for a living, which is being involved in YogaHub and yoga itself. Then my mother, who is the most flexible of us and exercises regularly, started showing us what she does everyday. When we found out that my cousin ha bad posture and was not very flexible, I told her to start doing yoga while she’s still young because otherwise her posture would only get worse as she gets older.

After my father came back into the room, my parents and I went home because I wanted to take a good bath.

That was a good relaxation for a moment.

Although I wanted to relax at home more, time was ticking on and a monk would be going to the hall to chant a Buddhist sutra for my grandmother. So we soon headed back to the funeral hall.

After the chant and dinner, I popped the Gift of Yoga DVD by John Sovec into the laptop that I had brought with me. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I had only three hours to prepare for my trip to Japan, but even then, I’d remembered to toss the DVD into my suitcase!!

So my cousin and I started practicing yoga in the tatami room – right in front everyone, including my grandma! It was the first time my cousin had ever done yoga. The DVD was for beginners as well as advanced, but my cousin still kept saying, “ouch, ouch!”

Oh, that poor girl – that’s how stiff and inflexible she was!

After the practice, however, my cousin realized how stiff she was and became well convinced that yoga had made her feel better.

I hope she’s practicing yoga now!

Japan Trip for My Grandma’s Funeral:

• One Century of Life: In memory of grandma 
• A Memorable Three Hours
• Yoga Practice at A Funeral Hall
• Wii Fit Yoga in Japan
  

[tags]Gift of Yoga, John Sovec, funeral hall, yoga practice, yoga DVD, yoga for beginners, flexible, yoga at Japan trip[/tags]