On Yoga

The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
Robert Cushing

Today was yoga day.  The last two yoga days were great.  The first one was too fast but not bad.  The second one was dead on.  This morning when I got up, my ankles and wrists and knuckles hurt more than “normal”.  I took the new medicine (anti-inflamitory) and it is NOT what I was hoping for.  It did take a bit of the edge off… but not a whole lot… By the time yoga was over, I wanted to rip the instructor’s skinny little head off.  It wasn’t her fault, it was mine.  I was trying to keep up and my body just wasn’t cooperating.  My bad.

It was really hard on my woohoo… because I’m really liking yoga.

And I’m nothing if not a typical Type A… as soon as I liked Yoga, I went out and got a used Let’s Yoga for the DS, I downloaded a Yoga app for Squirrel’s ipod touch so I can learn (when he isn’t using it) the poses and what the poses help with… and a book from the half price book store…

What I’ve learned is…

Yoga is for everyone… even if you aren’t flexible.  That means it is great for RA… you can modify poses and you can do only what you can do.

There is no success or failure, no good… no bad… just be true to yourself… true to your practice.  You can only make yoga your own if you are being true to yourself.

Three things to remember…
Move Slowly
Breathe Deeply
Work at your own pace

If you do these three things, any movement can be yoga.  It is 99% breathing.

Remember, yoga is like just about anything else you do, it is difficult before it is easy.

Sit down in a chair, put your hands on your knees, breathe deeply… fill your chest… fill your your chest clear down to the bottom of your stomach.

Today, yoga practice kicked my butt.  I totally modified my poses and went into child’s pose several times when I just COULDN’T keep up with the class.

There is a girl in my class who has arthritis in her toes… not RA, which she said she is forever grateful for… no $*^t… but she says what she finds absolutely most important is to do things for herself.  Do things that she can do and make time for herself to be gentle with herself, to be good to herself, to do what she needs to do.

Hello… wow… okay, I can listen now!…