Hatha Yoga

Today, I tried Traditional Hatha Yoga for the first time. It is a holistic yogic path, including moral disciplines, physical postures (asana), purification procedures (shatkriya), poses (mudra), yogic breathing (pranayama), and meditation. The Hatha yoga predominantly practiced in the West consists of mostly asanas understood as physical exercises. It is also recognized as a stress-reducing practice.

My friend Hayley and I have begun taking all the new classes at the new YMCA near our work. This was the first time either of us had done Yoga, so we weren't too sure what to expect. We knew we'd be holding different positions, and we knew it'd be challenging and we knew we'd get a Yoga mat, and be in a calm space. 

Try this pose right now, it's very difficult. If you're in a room full of people doing the pose together, it gives you motivation (and my competitive side comes out) so I tried as hard as I possibly could not to fall. I managed to do it, by "centering my heart to the earth "--or something like that, and balancing with all my might. 

To our surprise, there were some body parts we weren't even aware that could experience pain. (The tip of our toes, and our lower spine) Also, we were asked to do some strange things with our body. "Lengthen your neck", "Squeeze your kidneys", "be aware of your upper and lower ribs hitting the floor"," suck in your abs, push out your chest, pull back your shoulders, and raise your heart" .... these requests were things I really needed to wrap my head around, and sometimes I felt like my body was twisting and bending into very unnatural positions. A few times my spine cracked and hurt, and I didn't realize that you should be able to actually feel your spine. Hopefully the cracks were good things? 

At one point, the instructor noticed that I wasn't lengthening my neck properly, (mainly because I had no clue what she was talking about) so she came behind me and lifted my head off my shoulders- it felt like my head would pop off, but once she was done, I felt an interesting relief and lightness. 

I actually worked up a decent sweat, surprisingly, because we weren't working out very hard. It was more relaxing than strenuous. We were holding posing for a significant amount of time, and we were in a small stuffy room, so I imagine you would sweat doing this type of activity. 

Afterwards, I felt a sense of relief and refreshment! I will definitely go back again next week :) Try Yoga, for stress relief and stretching your body. It feels good...