"Giving Back to Yourself" Day

Downward facing down; inverted table; meditation. Now, get your head out of the gutter~ those are yoga poses, silly. Yep, today I went to my first ever Yoga class. And it was AWESOME! My good friend and colleague Sarah Lee teaches a Yoga class at CDC and I decided to give it a whirl today. It actually falls into my "half marathon" training. Sorry I missed blogging yesterday (we had computer issues), but just so you know, I did my cardio and I am still on track. Granted, it's day 3 of training, but hey, perfect attendance is perfect attendance. So I packed up my yoga mat, my yoga pants (I didn't know I had a pair until I read the inside label that they were) and headed to class. I gave Sarah a "heads up" that she was going to have a new pupil today. "I'm a yoga virgin", I told her. She just laughed they way she normally does at me- (she was probably saying to herself, "I hope she didn't eat Mexican food for lunch") LOL. So I walked into the class and the lights were dimmed and it was so quiet. You could hear a pin drop. The soothing yoga music was playing. So what the hell do I do next? Say hello to everyone? Judging by the way they were sitting with their eyes closed, my guess is no. I just followed my friend Adriane's lead- roll out your mat, take your shoes off, sit cross-legged on your mat and keep your mouth shut. Check. So far, so good. What's really cool is Sarah has "themes" for each Yoga class. Today was "Giving Back to Yourself". We give and give so much each day; to your job, your family, etc. and what do you give to yourself? So this hour long class today was dedicated to each of us in that room. Pretty cool, eh? But, as fast as you could say "assume the position", it was time to get into the first pose, stand and twist (oh and breathing- that was key too) - Hey, no problem! This feels great!! I was truckin right along and then came downward facing down. Crap- I literally fell downward facing down. Now I know why they call it what they do. I was stretching muscles I never knew I had. Then came something I think called a "snake"- I didn't make that move the first time, but the second time it came around, I nailed it! Then we went back into the "downward" position again, and this time Sarah came around to each of us to make sure we were in the correct position. I was not. My head wasn't lowered enough. She moved it. Holy crap balls- just one little movement and my muscles were working it. I was sweating like a two peckered goat. I never knew Yoga was so relaxing yet so hard. After an hour, I was so relaxed. Well, I can say I survived my first yoga class (and no gas was passed). :) What a great way to finish up an afternoon of work. I was totally in a Zen mode. Maybe that's why I missed a meeting. LOL (Kidding; I didn't). I am looking forward to class next week. Maybe I will learn a pranayama pose. Until then....