Yoga: Clear your mind

By no 'stretch' of the imagination am I a Yogi.  I'm not very good at all.  I have terrible balance, my postures are lacking, to say the least, and I forget to breath correctly.  BUT, I love doing yoga.  I've been going to two different places over the last several months (I'll attach their websites below).  I don't go too regularly, once or twice a week (due to time constraints), but when I can, I will.  Both places have classes very early in the morning, which is the only time I can go.  I even got to go to an awesome night yoga gathering with my friend Kristen and her little boy.  It was GLOW yoga.  Yep, glow.  We painted our skin with glow-in-the-dark paint and then yoga'ed under black lights.  It was a blast.  I really hope to get to do one of those again.  

So the two studios I've been going to are The Yoga Room and Salt.  The Yoga Room, over on Brookside has a 0630 class for $5 and Salt in Utica Square has a $15 hot yoga class at 0600.  Either of these I can attend.  Don't misunderstand, that's ungodly early, even for a morning person like me.  I'll have to get up at and have all my things for the day ready to take with me, along with my school stuff and yoga mat, towel, and water bottle.  So it's a lot of crapola to remember at 0500.  Anywho, The Yoga Room's class is a very basic, very easy series of Sun Salutations.  Pretty much anyone could go to this class and be in time with everyone else.  It is about clearing your mind, concentrating on your breath, and listening to your body.  I've never (really in my life) been able to "clear my mind" and truly think of nothing but what I'm doing.  I've never been able to just breath and be and be aware of my breathe.  I've always had a zillion things going through my head.  School, work, home, what did I forget, what do I have to do at work, did I bring my shoes, etc.  l'm really working on it though.  I've noticed that I'm getting better, but still not great.  

I noticed today in the Salt hot yoga class that I am actually able to concentrate only on what I'm doing.  This class is very challenging (for me).  So in case you don't know what hot yoga is, it's exactly what it sounds like: HOT yoga.  Yoga under infrared heaters.  It's hot.  I LOVE IT.  So the gal instructor this morning, Ayngel, was really good, and the other people in attendance were really good.  I was definitely the least coordinated and most balance-challenged.  But the with the heightened level of difficulty, I was able to totally focus on what I was doing.  Mostly because I had to or I'd fall over and splatter.  Childs pose, down dog, cobra, warrior 1, 2, 3, chair, eagle, pigeon, crow, and many others.  I always park my mat within arms-length of the wall, in case I need to catch myself.  Hey, I'm learning, don't judge.  

Here are some of the poses we did this morning.  I really want to get better at Yoga.  I've always been flexible and strong, and I still am.  But my balance has always sucked, and still does.  So I'm working on it and maybe someday we can post pictures of me doing these poses.  


http://theyogaroomtulsa.com/
http://www.saltyogatulsa.com/


   




http://theyogaroomtulsa.com/
http://www.saltyogatulsa.com/