Day four of the exercise program, yoga. I remember the first time ever someone suggested I go to a yoga class, I almost laughed… yoga? Me? Are you serious? I am a butt-kicking, marathon running type of gal, yoga? Come’on! Well, I tried it, and I was not expecting the outcome, it kicked MY butt. How’s that for a change? I was used to kicking a punch bag, running long distances. All these types of physical exercises that had something in common: I was competing with someone else, it was either the punching bag to see how hard I could kick it and of course the person who was standing next to me, the harder they kicked, the harder I kicked. Same thing with running, I was competing with someone else. Yoga was different. For the first time in my life, I had to deal with my own stuff on the mat. There was no one else there but me and my mat and I had to focus on myself to be able to do my best. It wasn’t comfortable but I fell in love with what I found, beyond all that noise in my head, I saw myself for who I truly was and I happened to like it. No need to prove anything to anyone, just be there.
I found my forever favorite yoga teacher, Ally Hamilton from Yogis Anonymous in Santa Monica, my husband and I would drive to her classes every Wednesday and Friday night at that time, when she was still with Power Yoga. Then thing happened, I got pregnant, we moved farther away from the yoga studio, and a series of circumstances got in the way of my commitment to continue practicing. When we moved to Lompoc, I was already resigned to the idea of never ever being able to practice yoga again.
Then magic happened. Ally and a group of amazing people opened Yogis Anonymous and started to provide virtual classes. Once again, I could practice but this time, from the comfort of my home a whole 2 1/2 – 3 hours away from her studio. Unfortunately, I hadn’t practiced in a long time so of course it will take a while to get back to where I was when I first started practicing.
The yoga X workout from the P90X program is really, really good. It reminded me again of why it is that I love yoga so much. It provides me with the ability to focus on myself, my pose, and no one else but me. Of course the physical component is just an additional benefit. That stretching after all this very intense workout feels divine and the stretching itself from the yoga is pretty intense as well. Truth be told, I was only able to stick to half of the yoga session. But again, I did my best and forgot the rest.