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Slice of Life

Tuesday, February 5th: Yoga Class

2/5/2019

4 Comments

 
My thoughts are ruffled and crashing like waves on a windy beach.  Each idea jumps over the previous, pushing emotions' buttons, playing me.  I'm looking for a calmer self, the part that watches above, below or somewhere in all this chaos, but wherever this self is, if it even exists, it keeps getting subsumed by an urgent need to add an item to the grocery list, or plan what I will say to my 7th grader about his grades, or wonder if turned my phone off. 

Through the noise, I walk into the studio.  It's morning so the sun shines in chunky blocks on gleaming blond floors. I try to notice.  My shoulders hunch forward, like my heart is waiting for a blow.  I try to notice. An idea for a lesson plan for tomorrow shoots through my head.  I try to notice and let it go.

The class starts hard:  planks, body shaking, arms feel like sticks trying to heft the weight of a body full of stories. There's no room in this head now for anything but breath that shakes through my body. 

I hear the inhalations and exhalations of other bodies.  My own breath is a whisper, a message from some other self that exists below, above, beyond.  Finally here. 
4 Comments
Stacey link
2/6/2019 10:38:39 am

Thanks for joining us for Slice of Life Tuesdays!

I noticed your permalink was missing in the body of your comment so I'm adding it now. If you could place it in with your comments going forward, that will help people find your posts.

Now, onto what you wrote. I can relate to this. I often take Pilates or Body Flow (which is a combo of Pilates, Tai Chi, and Yoga) classes and my mind drifts to other things just as yours did. It's hard to stay focused on the exercise when there's so much going on in our lives. I guess that's the whole point of the mind-body connection in fitness.

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Trina K Haase link
2/6/2019 01:29:14 pm

What a fantastic first slice! I love that you are writing about noticing, especially with distracting thoughts (so easy to run with those kind of thoughts). I think that there is such power in noticing.

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Elisabeth Ellington link
2/7/2019 07:44:35 am

Welcome! I love the pacing of your piece and the descriptions that make me feel I'm right there with you--all that monkey mind--until that lovely final image of "My own breath is a whisper" when the monkey mind has quieted and you're fully present in the moment. That's what I love about yoga too. I agree with Trina: what a first slice!

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Christina M Santoleri
2/19/2019 05:41:41 pm

Great way to catch the essence of clearing a busy mind through your yoga practice. I especially like the line "there's no room in this head now..."

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