Class #13 Sweet Vinyasa with Kimberly

Mmmmm. Sunday morning yoga, it's good for what ails ya! So I really love vinyasa (breath synchronized movement) yoga. It's fun to breathe and connect with the other students in the room. I also find moving with the breath very soothing if I am stressed out or worried about something. One of the many beautiful things about yoga is that I can get so much out of this style of class while being almost comically bad at it. I keep forgetting to breathe and lose focus often. Sure it's great if a person can do all the poses correctly perfectly synchronized with the breath, but each new pose, each new breath is also an opportunity to improve even if the one before was not that great.

Good: We did some side lunges (I can't seem to find an image that matches this pose)that I got decent extension on and felt really good. Pretty much anything that starts from Wide-Legged Forward Bend Prasarita Padottanasana http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/693 seems to go well for me. Maybe it is because I have a relatively open mind and don't feel like I "should" or "should not" be able to do certain things while I am inverted that way. If I am able to get a full extension on a pose, cool. If not, it's no big deal, I just try my best. Maybe I need to do all my poses inverted somehow...

Bad: I am trying to be more mindful of my breath and it is just not there on some of the more physically demanding poses. For instance, the plank to chaturanga dandasana http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/469 to Upward Facing Dog Urdhva Mukha Svanasana http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/474 sequence quickly devolves into me holding my breath for most of it as the class progresses and we repeat this variation. I wonder why my body's natural impulse is to not breath? At least I am thinking about it now and can focus on it as I practice.

Yummy: I mentioned in an earlier post the difficulties I was having with tortoise pose Kurmasana and sleeping tortoise pose Supta Kurmasana http://www.motleyhealth.com/yoga/sleeping-tortoise-yoga-pose-supta-kurmasana. Kimberly was super considerate and gave a great explanation and demonstration for both. I did a little better in tortoise and was really getting into it for the sleeping variation. When I was a little kid around eight or so, I actually used to do something pretty similar to this pose and getting close to it again was very fun and exciting. Thanks Kimberly!

Thanks everyone else too. One of my favorite songs that gets played a lot in Amsa classes is "You are not alone in this". It's true and it makes all the difference.