During my last visit with my AMAZING chiropractor, he mentioned that his practice is starting to hold yoga classes and the recommended that I give it a try to help with my core and balance.  I thought that was a great idea because the day and time of the class works well with my schedule, I trust him and what he recommends for my wellness and back health and I have been on a quest for a more holistic approach to my wellness and health by using essential oils and now yoga would be a great complement to that approach.  My mom also heard about the class and mentioned that she was thinking of doing it as well so we both signed up.

The day of my first yoga class was an extremely stressful day at work.  Two hours before class I had come into a very high stress situation and was very upset.  I didn’t want that bad energy to come with me into the class and I was hoping that the yoga would give me the relief I needed of that stress and anger that I was holding on to.

The yoga instructor started with us by explaining what yoga is and talking about how we need to take care of ourselves.  To use the practice of yoga as a time of healing ourselves.  Looking inward for peace rather than outward. Use your breath, body and mind to unite yourself.  Harmonizing your body and mind with breathing, posture and meditation is the soul purpose of doing yoga, as well as making your body and balance stronger.

After she talked to us she had us find a comfortable position for sitting  and focus on our breathing and become aware of how we breathe.  Then she had us close our eyes and be still.  Then we worked on laying on our backs and feeling our abdomen rise and fall with our breathing.  As women, we typically take shorter breathes with our upper airway and don’t usually take deep breaths through our abdomen because when carrying children we didn’t have the space while we were pregnant.  So we practiced taking a deeper slower breath and it calms your heart rate down.

Then she helped us practice opening up our hips because as Americans we sit too long in our chairs and our cars and our every day life.  After some gently stretching we worked on opening up our shoulders and then we stood up to begin working on balance and posture with a tree pose and a warrior pose.  After doing these exercises we got back down on the floor to lay down and get focused on breathing again and having quiet time to meditate and relax.

I really enjoyed the class.  I felt calm afterwards and when I got home to the house with the kids all fired up and loud, I sent them outside to burn off their energy.  I was hoping to try to do the exercises at home during the week; but I did take the practice of what she taught up regarding self-awareness and used it when I could to remain calm during situations that would have stressed me out.  I made myself aware of what I was feeling and then rather than tensing up my body I was making sure that I was breathing and also opening up the areas that I tend to tense up.

I can’t wait for the next class.  I also told my husband that I think this would be a great class for him to help him unwind and learn to quiet his mind.  If i can quiet my mind for even just and hour, then I think he might be able to as well.  I can’t sit still.  When it’s nice weather out and we sit on our deck to relax I can only last about 5 minutes in the lounge chair before I start to get antsy and need to do things.

What I really enjoyed about the class was not just the exercises themselves but the practice of being aware of every part of your body.  We felt our muscles from our toes, up our legs, to our hips and then throughout our shoulders and fingers.  We let our head relax and did neck curls to release tension from our neck from holding our head up all day long.  I think learning to be present is going to be key to this class.  We are so busy with work, kids, emails, messages, all of the “noise” in life that it makes it very hard to remain present.  I think this is going to help me with that, or at least raise my awareness of it so that I may think twice about how I manage my time, my stress, my projects and my health and family.

I’ll keep you posted of the progress for the next 6 weeks!