Discovering Yoga!

In my effort to de-stress, lose weight, and get out of the house during the rainy season, I signed up for a yoga class at the local recreation center.  My teacher, Margaret, is in the most fabulous shape of anyone I've ever seen.  I'm in awe of the poses she can get into.   According to Margaret, yoga is her medicine.  She takes absolutely no pharmaceuticals and is in perfect health, not a bad goal to have.

I got into the class with some friends.  We're all beginners, so we immediately headed to the back row, hoping we could hide out there with our inflexible bodies.  Unfortunately, Margaret likes to roam the class and pay special attention to the beginners.  So pretty soon we're using blocks and belts and stretching every which way.

My favorite pose was the "Warrior" pose, maybe because it made me feel strong even as my legs started to shake.  I couldn't understand all the words Margaret used, and am still a long way from putting my head on the floor while bending over at the waist, But I did love the stretching and the slightly sore achy feeling at the end of it.  The next day I realized I was feeling muscles I hadn't felt in a long while.

As we were practicing one of the poses -- lying down, resting on forearms and putting hands behind small of back and kicking legs into the air in a bicycle fashion, my friend exclaimed, "I used to do this when I was a kid". I remember doing it, too, but couldn't quite fling my legs into the air the way I used to.  But I'm determined to progress slowly but surely.  I hope to get to the point where I'm concentrating less on doing it right and more on just sinking into the pose and letting the stress of life melt away.

So Yoga is my new hobby -- anyone else gotten the itch to get into the lotus position?