Namaste

For the first time in about a year and a half, I went to yoga class. It was great, and I don't know why it took me so long to get back. Yoga and I got off to a pretty rocky start though, and it's kind of a funny story.

I first got into yoga about 10 years ago when I walked into a gym to sign up for a tai chi class there. The owner of the school asked me why I was interested in tai chi. I told him that I had seen people practicing it, and I loved the graceful and controlled movements. "You do understand that tai chi is a martial art, a fighting style, don't you?", he asked. "Do want to learn how to fight?" Umm, I guess I didn't know as much about this stuff as I thought. I talked to him a little more, and he told me that what I really was looking for was yoga. "Yoga?", I asked incredulously. I had always thought of yoga as so...passive, with lots of sitting around, meditating, and chanting. He went on to explain that like the martial arts, there were many schools and forms of yoga. Some were more based on meditation and non-movement, while others were more athletic. At this particular school they offered classes in a style called Iyengar, named after it's founder B.K.S. Iyengar. "If you take it seriously, it's the hardest thing you can study at this school", he said. I decided to give it a go and signed up for a ten class cycle.

A couple of nights later, I was back at the school for my first class, which was %100 female. The instructor was no-nonsense and her class was very organized, and I left each one invigorated though a bit humbled. With each class, the instructor made things tougher and tougher, and really pushed us to improve the quality of our work. Most of the time however, I thought she was particularly hard on me, calling me out by name if I was a little off, or criticizing me when I couldn't hold a pose in balance long enough. We had been steadily working up to doing a handstand, and when the night finally came to do this, many in the class popped right up with no effort. "OK", I thought, "I can do this, just focus!". I tried and I tried, and though I got close, I could not muster the derring-do to pull off my handstand. My heart sank as the teacher approached. "C'mon, you can do this. You should already be up there, let's GO!", she commanded. I tried again, but no. She seemed to grow a bit more flustered and stepped over to me. "Kick your feet out and up!", she barked. This was getting a little embarassing now. OK, I thought, I'm giving it my all this time, and with that thought I kicked my legs out hard, and WHAM!! caught the teacher flush in the face with my bare foot. I saw her glasses fly into the air in one direction while she went down in the other.

The class was stunned. "Oh my GOD!" I screamed. Her nose was bleeding a little, and someone ran to get ice. Her glasses weren't broken, but certainly were a little bent up. I apologized again and again, but she hardly said a word. After a few minutes of the ice, we concluded that her nose wasn't broken, but class was definitely over for that night.

I have to admit that despite having pre-paid for a few more classes, I never went back there. I did stick with yoga though, and eventually got a little better.