Recently, my most spiritual moments occur in yoga class.
Allow me to explain.
I’ve been trying to take better care of myself physically lately. Over the past few years, it’s been a slow and steady realization that my body is not what it used to be. I trip and hit my tailbone and a month-long recovery ensues (complete with a donut for the front seat of my car). I twist my ankle during a leisurely stroll and it has me limping for 3 weeks. Injuries that would set me back a day in my 20s have been setting me back a week or more. As Toby Keith put it so eloquently, “I ain’t as good as I once was.”
One of the things I’ve tried on the road to better health is yoga. I’ve tried yoga a couple times in the past, most notably when I was pregnant with my firstborn. I didn’t love it. As a matter of fact, most weeks I dozed off, but I guess that’s how prenatal yoga is, right? That was 10 years ago though, and knowing that yoga is supposed to be great for balance, flexibility, and strength, I figured I’d give it another shot. After researching a few local places online, I found a yoga studio near my house and picked a Vinyasa yoga class on Sunday morning at 8:30 am. My husband would be home and I’d have no excuse not to kick myself out of bed.
I picked Vinyasa yoga, which as I read online, moves from pose to pose quickly, hoping that it would hold my interest better than a traditional yoga class. I was right.
By 9:30 am that first Sunday, I was not only sweating profusely, I was hooked. Who knew there was yoga out there that made you feel like you just ran a marathon?
The class ends in Shavasana, a yoga pose where you are lying flat on your back for a few minutes and are alone with your thoughts (kind of, being that are 25 other people in the room doing the exact same thing). Usually, it’s during this time that I find myself most at peace during the week. Homeschooling four kids means I usually don’t have any time to myself (unless you count the walk to my mailbox). I continued to go faithfully, week after week, craving both the endorphins and the alone time.
In a recent class, while holding a difficult pose for a just a few breaths past the comfortable limit, my body started to shake. I wasn’t the only one, apparently, because as I struggled to hold the pose for just a few seconds longer, our teacher coached us through the quaking. “Shaking is good. If you’re shaking, it means that you’re alive.”
I smiled and pushed myself past what I thought I could do, holding the pose just a couple seconds longer. What she said motivated me to push past the pain, but also reminded me that pain can be good. It reminded me of something my sister always says wryly when she turns another year older. “It sure beats the alternative.”
Pain and discomfort is an indication that you are pushing yourself past the comfortable limit, and yet, it is not getting the best of you. You are alive. Pain and discomfort can be a welcome reminder.
That day, during Shivasana, I let my mind wander. The same is true for emotional pain. When we experience pain in our lives, it allows us to appreciate the sweet things around us that much more fully. You know that feeling you have when you hear that someone died tragically? That feeling to love urgently? That feeling is what propels us to do things we should do every day anyway, but don’t. Hug our children more, tell our spouse why we appreciate them more, call our parents and our friends more.
When I left yoga class that morning, I vowed to appreciate my body more. It still works (for now) and everything that I can do with it is a blessing.
A spiritual awakening in a yoga studio.
Shaking is good. It means that you’re alive.