Blankets, Bolsters and Blocks

A fundamental yoga class that I once went to was classified as Level 0 and Alison, the teacher at the time, said that she was going to talk to the office folks because it shouldn't be zero -- it had to be something.

Thought about that today because I felt like I had zero energy.

In Gloria's class, I kept thinking about what a lazy yogi I am but that's not totally true either because I've done Lazy Man's Yoga a.k.a. Thai Massage and probably haven't done it again because it did make me feel royally lazy.

As I hit play on Kenpo X, didn't think that I would get through five minutes let alone the entire workout but maybe it's the energy of a rainy day.

During my walk yesterday, listened to Krista Tippett's interview with Imani Perry who made a lot of great points:

I think Americans are unhealthily obsessed with the idea of innocence. That's part of the impediment of talking about race.

Perry went on to talk about how that unhealthiness translates into some people always being the suspect. Towards the end of the podcast, Tippett asks Perry to talk about an image of a seedling with a splint holding it up that she used for, I believe, her book.

Perry talks about how we all need someone to hold us up. She also talks about the intense competition in our culture and how that causes anxiety. According to Perry:

The other side of anxiety is that it isolates us from our sense of responsibility to each other.

In addition to Gloria's class, I went to a restorative yoga class. As I looked around the room, it reminded me of a slumber party with all of the blankets, bolsters and blocks.

Although there's very little movement that goes on in a restorative class, I don't feel lazy and it's, mainly, because of something that another instructor, Madonna, said: Resting is not idleness.