I Am A Tree.

The new quotes over there on the right are a reflection of how I feel about yoga.

After picking up The Yoga Face from the library a couple of weeks ago and reading a little bit I started trying a few of the poses.

Now, I'm not going to get all up on the bandwagon here, cause I'm not a bandwagon 'hot new thing' kind of person. Not that that's a bad thing. It's just not who I am. I won't be rushing out to buy a mat. I'm not going to participate in group classes. Especially the smelly ones. I'm not going to say much about it, except this once.

I'm not looking for some hot body (cause in fact, my body's pretty damn good for 38). I'm not looking for inner peace, revelation or to be one with my inner consciousness.

I'm just trying to loosen up. Stretch it out. Move it around in a gentle way that isn't going to make me worse. This seems to do it.

Someone asked me the other day if I was feeling better since I'd been off work and the answer to that is... I feel less stressed. But, are the headaches better? No.

Is it working? I dunno. Will it? I dunno. Movement, however, is always a good thing.

And it seriously amuses the cats.

Comments

[Saltation]

yoga is the r0x0r. a bloody brilliant body-resetter, and reducer of concomitant mental stress. good on ya.

2 tips you may find useful if this is your first proper run at it:* hot bath before you start. chilled of mind, loosened of body; parts you've been struggling with/railing against, just self-slip smoothly past the little lockups you didn't realise you were carrying. well, works for me anyway. only have to do it once in a blue moon, but when i'm trying to shake an injury, it's superb.* bikram. i know it's now a cliche in uhmurrica. but i've been doing it since before it was a cliche. and you know, cliches become cliches for a reason. because they're useful.i've only tried a proper class twice. and hated it both times. full of poseurs and patheticeurs. get a copy of his original book and just do it by yourself. funny and useful, "ideal" and "reality". (ignore all that "hot yoga" malarkey -- that's just marketing-gimmickguff he's added in recent years to try to get something legally protectable to try to defend against all the people simply ripping off his idea and original research.)

of course, if you already know all this, i plead the Teaching Granny To Suck Eggs defence and retire at speed in the direction of away.