First Day Back...

I am not your typical yoga student who has fancy yoga gear. I have not purchased the special props that you see in the yoga studios. My "block" that I use at home is some left over mini cell foam from when Grant and I carved out seats for our kayaks. I don't have special yoga blankets, instead I carefully fold some camping mats and some rugs we don't use anymore. I use a belt as a strap, and pillows serve as bolsters. Even my yoga mat is strange. I got it at a Long's Drug Store on a whim because I thought it was required to go to a public class. (did I really want to use a mat that had other people's feet on it?) and it is a pink-purple color and says "Bally's" in one corner. I have never seen another student's yoga mat the same color as mine.

I definitiely do not have any specifically designed for yoga yoga clothes or a cute strapy bag the perfect size for a rolled up yoga mat. I don't even roll up my mat anymore. A rolled up mat, when bungeed to my bike rack, sticks out too far and flops down over my red flashy light that hopefully keeps cars from running me over in the dark. So my mat gets folded into eighths and squished into a firm pile of stickiness and strapped down to my rack.

On Thursday when I got home from my yummy 2.25 hour Thanksgiving class, the mat stayed in its position, on my bike, ready for me today to go to my Monday night inversion class.

I felt slightly disappointed in myself for letting my mat just stay on my bike all weekend. (I mean for not practicing yoga all weekend... well, I was camping for most of the time) As expected, when I unfolded it at class, there were a ton of wrinkles in the mat from the folds and the bungee. I tried to smooth them out and all I could do was smile at my mat and acknowledge that this is just the way I am. Never quite fitting in with the other students and all of their cute yoga gear... and then not really wanting to anyways. Wanting to have a consistent yoga home practice, but then never quite able to keep it together for more than a couple of days at a time.

But yoga (and my mat) are forgiving. After a few downward facing dogs, my mat was stretched out and the wrinkles had all but disappeared. My body was happy again after feeling tight during the day. I smiled and welcomed myself back to yoga, just happy that I got myself to class tonight and it was a great class. After several warm-up type poses, we worked on headstand and shoulderstand variations as well as plow pose (which usually scares me). Yeah for using chairs as props to make things a little easier. (the explanation of this will have to come in another post)

This was also my first day back to school after a week long Thanksgiving break. By lunch my head was cloudy from too much energy usage. The kids were nice enough... if not relieved to be back to a structured routine. It will take me a couple of days to get back into the groove. 4 school weeks until Winter Break!