Riddle today.

What do you get when you cross one  very hot yoga room with a 48 yr old who’s a little overweight, and who has this attitude that I can do it all anyway?

Answer?

One huffing and puffing, sweat-dripping pile of mush on the floor

Yesterday I went to my first yoga class since, well, sometime in early July.  I have not practised yoga once.  Blame it on holidays, or whatever, but I just DIDN’T DO any!

Off I went ready to make a new start. 

I was the only person in class.  Feeling the attention from the teacher would only be on me, it was a bit nerve-racking to begin with. 

But, yoga is non-judging.  Right?

Non-labelling.  Right?

And I am supposed to BE wherever I need to be with my practise, each time I go.  Right!

So where was I this morning? 

Almost flat on my face!

Things started out well enough.  I had a teacher I’ve never had before and having told her I was a beginner and had not done any yoga most of the summer she was easing me into things quite slowly.  Nice gentle stretches.  Then on to some sun salute-a’s. Then sun salute-b’s.  Next were some triangle poses.  Nothing too difficult or that I haven’t done before.

About 25 minutes into the practise sweat started dripping off my face.  Again, nothing too unusual – it’s happened before.   I rested a minute or two, in child’s pose, which is what you’re supposed to do when you feel the need.

She wanted to move over to the back wall so we could practise our triangle poses with backs and shoulders square against the wall.  I was feeling a little light-headed. 

A couple of minutes later, we were going to start something new again so headed towards our mats.

I think I need to rest for a couple of minutes.

Are you feeling dizzy?  Light-headed?

Yes.

OK.  Just lie down and relax for a few minutes, in corpse pose.

OK.  (Yeah, at the moment I can do that quite naturally!)

As I was doing so, I could hear her putting equipment and mats together behind me.  A few minutes later I got up.

To continue with the last few minutes, let’s try just having you over here and we’ll do some gentle poses.  Well really just some breathing exercises, for a while.

I think I need to just be finished for today.

She then suggested I lay down for a further few minutes, with my raised over a bolster to allow my body to recuperate.

I have never had that happen to me before.  Ever.  The feeling that I might faint!  I left feeling a little foolish, but thanked my teacher for looking after me so well. 

Lesson Learned:  I can be determined to accomplish something but that doesn’t mean I can control the outcome.  Rather, I need to trust and listen to the signals around me, listen to my body, and my trust my instinct when it is trying to tell me something.  Otherwise, I might do a big face plant on the floor!

Thank goodness I chose to listen this time.  And, no matter how it turned out in the end, I MADE A START.  So it was a good day.

And later Dear Daughter made me laugh, once again.

Mom, did you use to buy things on-line?

There was no internet when I was your age, remember?  No computers.  No internet.  No mobile phones.

We both laughed!