yogini So I went to a yoga class yesterday evening. And, because I didn't hate it, I went again this morning. I think it's a good kind of exercise class for me--just enough to make me feel like I'm actually getting something out of it, but not so intense that I feel like a total loser for not being able to keep up. Even though I've been told this more times than I can count, I can vouch for the fact that it's true: yoga is hard. You know, not that it's that hard, I was just in the beginner's class, for chrissake, and I never really got beyond mild I-wish-this- pose-was-over-now discomfort, but still, it's no joke. I'd only taken yoga once before, for a semester-long gym elective my junior year of high school, which was basically the gym elective chosen by students who really didn't like gym at all. (The other elective in this same vein, which I also took, was Folk-Square-Ballroom.) It was pseudo- yoga. We went through the classic poses, with our sun salutations and whatnot, but there was also a lot of "meditation" built-in, and it was not uncommon for half the class to be actually snoringly asleep at any one time. I had several fears about taking yoga classes at this studio yesterday. The first is that I would be a total loser (see first paragraph) because I had almost no yoga experience. The second is that the people would be either these hip little trendsters or insanely spiritual yogis who could, you know, levitate or something. The third fear is that I would somehow be singled out to do something, fail, and everyone would snicker at me. And also, I would be naked. I am in seventh grade. I don't know if I was a total loser or not in the end, but it turned out that there were actually real beginners in the "beginner" class along with me, so I was able to blend in with the masses somewhat. And the people seemed pretty normal. Yesterday evening, the class consisted of mostly women my age, who looked professional or like people in those ads for We, the Women's Entertainment Network. (They show reruns of "Felicity" twice a day on that channel, did you know that?) If they were bohemian, they were the New York version of bohemian, that is to say, not really bohemian at all, rather with their beautifully coordinated outfits from Anthropologie, and maybe a hand-knit scarf thrown in for good measure. To round out the group, there were a few men, and some older people. (For some reason, there were many more men in the class I took this morning. Maybe more men work from home, so they can come to classes midday.) As for my last fear, that I would be singled out for being an idiot, that didn't really happen either. The instructor would periodically go around the room, correcting people's positions or alignments (occasionally shocking me with a hand moving my butt around, or smoothing my thighs), but since she was correcting everyone, it was OK. There was this weird moment today when we were doing this pose on all fours, and rolling around hips around in circles in this strangely sexual way, in an attempt to "open up our pelvises." The music overhead, which had been vaguely tinkly and Eastern-mystical, had somehow changed over to this weird 70's porn-sounding bow-chikka-waow-waow track, and I just thought to myself, "Am I sick, or does this look completely obscene?" The instructor, standing in the middle of the sea of undulating pelvises, chose this moment to tell us all, "You know you guys, this looks really interesting from this view." Anyway, it was fun. And now my upper body is sore, but, you know, not too sore. It's all good. I'll probably go back again soon. xo Michelle |
Thursday . January 30 . 2003 . 2:15pm |
yogini So I went to a yoga class yesterday evening. And, because I didn't hate it, I went again this morning. I think it's a good kind of exercise class for me--just enough to make me feel like I'm actually getting something out of it, but not so intense that I feel like a total loser for not being able to keep up. Even though I've been told this more times than I can count, I can vouch for the fact that it's true: yoga is hard. You know, not that it's that hard, I was just in the beginner's class, for chrissake, and I never really got beyond mild I-wish-this- pose-was-over-now discomfort, but still, it's no joke. I'd only taken yoga once before, for a semester-long gym elective my junior year of high school, which was basically the gym elective chosen by students who really didn't like gym at all. (The other elective in this same vein, which I also took, was Folk-Square-Ballroom.) It was pseudo- yoga. We went through the classic poses, with our sun salutations and whatnot, but there was also a lot of "meditation" built-in, and it was not uncommon for half the class to be actually snoringly asleep at any one time. I had several fears about taking yoga classes at this studio yesterday. The first is that I would be a total loser (see first paragraph) because I had almost no yoga experience. The second is that the people would be either these hip little trendsters or insanely spiritual yogis who could, you know, levitate or something. The third fear is that I would somehow be singled out to do something, fail, and everyone would snicker at me. And also, I would be naked. I am in seventh grade. I don't know if I was a total loser or not in the end, but it turned out that there were actually real beginners in the "beginner" class along with me, so I was able to blend in with the masses somewhat. And the people seemed pretty normal. Yesterday evening, the class consisted of mostly women my age, who looked professional or like people in those ads for We, the Women's Entertainment Network. (They show reruns of "Felicity" twice a day on that channel, did you know that?) If they were bohemian, they were the New York version of bohemian, that is to say, not really bohemian at all, rather with their beautifully coordinated outfits from Anthropologie, and maybe a hand-knit scarf thrown in for good measure. To round out the group, there were a few men, and some older people. (For some reason, there were many more men in the class I took this morning. Maybe more men work from home, so they can come to classes midday.) As for my last fear, that I would be singled out for being an idiot, that didn't really happen either. The instructor would periodically go around the room, correcting people's positions or alignments (occasionally shocking me with a hand moving my butt around, or smoothing my thighs), but since she was correcting everyone, it was OK. There was this weird moment today when we were doing this pose on all fours, and rolling around hips around in circles in this strangely sexual way, in an attempt to "open up our pelvises." The music overhead, which had been vaguely tinkly and Eastern-mystical, had somehow changed over to this weird 70's porn-sounding bow-chikka-waow-waow track, and I just thought to myself, "Am I sick, or does this look completely obscene?" The instructor, standing in the middle of the sea of undulating pelvises, chose this moment to tell us all, "You know you guys, this looks really interesting from this view." Anyway, it was fun. And now my upper body is sore, but, you know, not too sore. It's all good. I'll probably go back again soon. xo Michelle |
