The Golden Opportunity or The Gospel According to My Gentle Yoga Teachers

My Expression of Gate Pose, Modified

Jaime

It's very good to do shoulder shrugs and neck rotations. In China, people do this every day. This area (neck) is the connection between the mind and body and has a lot of nerves it. If this area is tight and tense, a lot of problems can occur.

You have a golden opportunity to improve yourself during yoga...

Forehead to the Floor................ During Child's Pose

Be gentle with the neck...


Donna

This hour is about you and only you.

The only person that you should be worried about is you on your mat.

It's your practice. Do whatever you wish or wish not to do...

In any class that you're in, if you're tired or don't feel like doing a pose, you can go into Child's Pose -- no questions asked; it's a restorative pose.

Extend your leg back and curl your toes under for a yummy calf stretch.

I don't know of any exercise where you hold your breath except for a breath-holding contest.

And now we come to the most important part...savasana.

Reenactment

Decided to take a vacation day to double my weekend because, you know, two days are not enough and, really, four leaves me longing for the next vacation.

I had my eye on the pool and was set to rendezvous with Hazira right around the time the pool opens. Hazira was getting her shopping groove on and was running a little behind so I left a message letting her know that I was headed in the direction of the water.

Flip flops, check. Sun screen, check. Goggles, check. Gate to the pool? Locked. I swiped the magic magnetic card but the gate didn't give. Yet, I saw three boys on the other side although they didn't make a move to let me in.

Finally a woman appeared to say that, because of the holiday, the pool is closed. What? She also told the boys that they needed to get out of the pool. I should have jumped the fence too. How lame to close the pool on July 5th.

When I have my mind set on something, I'm not usually deterred. Plan B involved going to a recreation center about 15 minutes away from the first pool. Thanks to Hazira for accompanying me even though she didn't really feel like it and thanks for paying the entrance fee. ☺

After swimming I dropped Hazira off, made a pit stop then headed to yoga. The regular teacher, Jaime, inquired about Kate, the sub, then proceeded to talk about not comparing ourselves to others while doing yoga. He also said that poses might seem difficult at first but with relaxation and patience etc., we'll be able to get into those poses eventually. Relaxation and patience -- a lesson that I've been hearing a lot about lately...

We used the wall for back work and it felt good. It seemed like we were making letters with our legs. I kept thinking of Sesame Street. Is there a muppet that's into letters or am I thinking about Count von Count?

Reenactment: Butt against the wall. Legs are joined together first then separated. Felt really good.

One leg stands alone but the "standing" leg eventually joins the one on the floor for a twisted situation. Om.

Hope your holiday weekend was enjoyable...