What I Did

Do we have a lunch/dinner agenda?? What are we going to dooo???

Got this text from my aunt Girt yesterday. I also wondered what I was going to do:

Yoga followed by Zumba?

Yoga or Zumba? A double dose of yoga?

Knew that I wanted to gather for birthday lunch because I had my eye on evening yoga...

Ended up going to a.m. yoga with Alison. I like getting on my mat first thing in the morning to set intentions on my birthday. Plus, practicing next to a friend is always nice. Alison and I went to Jim's class -- just my second class with Jim whose voice reminds me of Ben Stein. Jim was born to teach a slow flow class.

Jim's funny:

If you have trouble balancing, go the wall -- that's what I put them there for.

And serious:

When the mind is quiet, the real world comes in -- not the world we made up.

Ended my day with Zumba which was a nice touch because Zumba's a total party atmosphere. Shawny kept adjusting the music. I need it loud, she said. Surprise, surprise...

After lunch saw that my neighbor had her puppies on the lawn. I'm not going to mention the 10 mosquito bites that I acquired while playing with the puppies. My neighbor wants to give me a puppy and somewhere along the way, she thinks that I said yes. As adorable as they are, a dog needs someone who's going to be home more than I'm at home and there's the expense too but, dang, they're adorable...

Sweet a.k.a. Veggie Burger for B-day Lunch

How I Felt After Yoga (Artwork by Cbabi @ Sweet Art)

Watermelon Sorbet (Shared)

It's a fight.

And the winner is.

Treats

Breathe When You Get There or Stuff My Yoga Teachers Say

Soaked!

Gloria told us that we were going to do a gentle practice because it was a full moon and that in Ashtanga...

I didn't need to hear the rest. I was all in Billie Holiday mode: Don't explain. I am down for the gentle cause.

Yesterday, at the end of a remedial yoga class, Alison started taking about breath and gratitude. It was a simple talk but I found it moving and today I find myself grateful. As I walked, I noticed that half of the sky was dark and the other half sunny. Got caught out in the storm tornadic weather. I was soaked from head to toe but pretty lucky that I did not get crushed or impaled.


Stuff My Yoga Teachers Say

Alison:

If something hurts, stop doing it....

This is the second chakra...Your hips are like water (complete with water-like motions)...

Before we start, does anyone have any injuries that I should know about?... Does anyone have any injuries that they want to tell me about? As we get older, we all get injuries...we fall off our bikes...we...

One of my teachers made me stay in Warrior I for 45 minutes. I didn't think that I'd be able to do it but I did...

We opened our hips and now we're going to close them...


Elle:

We take 26,000 breaths a day -- which ones are you present for? Which ones are you making sweeter? 


Gloria:

You make progress on the exhale...

Ride the wave of the breath.

Modify. Be gentle. Be compassionate.

We are not trying to do some extreme yoga posture...


Jim (as he talked us into a high lunge with arms extended skyward):

Breathe when you get there.

Rebecca (during triangle):

There's no weight on that hand; it's an energetic extension of the hand.

Sharon:

Relax the muscle between your eyes. I see some of you during savasana and that area is still all tightened up.

You are so busy thinking about this and that -- what you'll do after class...I'll watch over you...I'll watch the clock.

Take that peace with you and share it with others so that one day we may have peace on earth...

Breathing

Not since I was in boot camp i.e. swimming class with my most excellent teacher, Jim, have I been able to swim the front crawl for 25 meters without stopping; It took me about seven months but I was finally able to do it again.

I consciously relaxed, slowed down and concentrated on rotating cleanly.



I struggled as I got near the shallow end and I was practically gurgling but I did not stop. I made it. Twice.

On another note, my g'ma is breathing better. Not as rapidly. Oxygen saturation is good.

It's amazing the things that you take for granted.

There used to be an art therapist at my job and she had a Breathe sign in her office and I was drawn to its uncomplicated directive.

Lately, all I do is think about breathing for one reason or another.

Sappy Letter to My Swimming Teacher

Yes, I did it. I sat down, typed a thank you letter to my swimming teacher, addressed and stamped the envelope and deposited it in one of those blue boxes.

Jim was actually my second swimming teacher. I had taken one other class at another Y but I was getting nowhere fast because of thin instruction even though I liked the teachers who, for awhile, took a tag team approach until one had to leave for school.

I decided to sign up at the Carondelet Y and see what lessons were like there. The moment Jim opened his mouth, I knew that I was staying put. He asked us about our swimming experience and he was all show-and-tell. He demonstrated a move and expected us to follow suit. I had my face in the water within three minutes.

In my letter, I even thanked him for pushing me underwater once when we were exploring the deep end. I used to fear the deep in. I would practice my fresh swimming skills and stop at the line that separates the shallow end from the deep end; that line might as well have been railroad tracks in a segregated town because I had the hardest time crossing it and no one really said that one would not sink like a stone. When Jim pushed me under, it took quite a bit of effort on his part which put my mind at ease. He also reminded me about a person's unchanging buoyancy.

During my second swimming class, I sometimes felt like I was in a football game -- a running back with an escort since Jim would swim at my side once he convinced me that he had enough confidence for both of us that I could do the front crawl for 25 yards.

At times, felt like I was in swimming boot camp but I've only made it 25 yards doing the front crawl twice and Jim was escorting both times.

Since I'm in thanking mode, I want to acknowledge my friends Hazira and Lori for accompanying me to the pool, supporting me while I learned to float and giving me crucial pointers. I know it's trite to say but I could not have done "it" without them.