10 Things That Make Me Happy: Yoga Edition... à la... Just Here Just Now

Read a post over at Just here. Just now. about 10 things that make Lisa Jones happy. Jones was inspired to create the list after hearing rich people (on a Bravo show) talk about material things that made them happy. I was inspired to make my own 10 things yoga edition after reading her yoga list.

10). I love saying Namaste at the end of class. More often than not, saying Namaste makes me smile…

9). When I fall out of a pose at the same time as someone else and we both smile.

8). I love the restful night of sleep that happens after I’ve practiced yoga.

7). Post-Namaste nod or smile to someone that I know visually but don’t really know.

6). When someone makes room for me in class.

5). Hearing Om.

4). Using bolsters, blocks, blanket and eye bag for savasana.

3). The energy cultivated by practicing yoga with others.

2). Finding myself doing tree pose while talking to people or waiting in line.

1). Earth salutations.

What's something that makes you happy -- yoga-related or otherwise?

You Haven't Done Child's Pose Until

As I was driving away from the rock climbing gym, I second-guessed my decision to head to yoga. It was dark, raining, yaddayaddayadda.

I have two visits left on a group coupon and since Yoga Wall is on hiatus, I decided to try Candlelight Restorative Yoga.

I walk in and about seven women were already on the floor. Some of them looked as if they were about to give birth.

I rolled out my mat and it looked completely jadan. The teacher, Madonna, quickly came over since I have a tendency to stick out. She gathered props for me: a strap, eggs, blocks, a blanket, a bolster and eye bag.

Madonna assembled some props and asked me to put my back to the bolster. I put the soles of my feet together and put the strap at my back then over my head and, finally, around my feet. The eggs supported my knees and I reclined with an eye bag. It was like reverse Savasana and Madonna did ring a bell to bring us out of each pose. She told me ahead of time that they usually hold one pose for about 10 minutes.

Next, we did Crocodile. Most of the props were moved to the side except for the bolster which we placed our ribs on while placing our foreheads on an egg.

After Crocodile, we put our legs up on the wall and put our eye bags back in place. The bags, by the way, smelled divine.

At some point, we did Child's Pose by placing the bolster at our knees then laying on it. Amazing. I felt like it was the first time that I've gotten the full benefit of the pose. As I was in Child's Pose, I thought Yoga, where have you been for most of life?

During class, Madonna came around to massage feet, legs and shoulders -- the shoulders with some mentholy situation. I know that the massage and yoga communities are intertwined but I'm not sure where the whole massage during yoga comes from. Never mind. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?

We did Savasana and Madonna preambled by saying that it was the most important pose. After we came out of Savasana, we ended the class with three "Om's." Madonna's got some pipes on her. After "Om," you know what came next:

Namaste

Do You Know Where Your Core Is?

That was the question posed to the boot camp class by the instructor Tracy.

I'm not one for group exercise but I went to check out the new Carondelet Park Recreation Complex or, as I like to call it, the city-funded YMCA and, since I've been curious about boot camp style classes and one was being offered on Saturday, I didn't think that a better opportunity would present itself. It was really good timing because only eleven people were in class.

Not only did Tracy help locate our cores, she also showed us à la Diana Ross who was the boss.

Tracy, who is a great instructor, struck all the right notes. The class was challenging yet fun.

We tossed around a three pound weight while moving rather rapidly in a circle. My friend Lori was not crazy about the tossing of the ball; I think she might have had a flashback from her dodgeball playing days.

We did that football-jogging-in-place-crouch then sprawled on the floor. We did planks, push-ups, burpees, squatted with our backs against the wall and, at one point, we compressed ourselves ball-like and rolled on the mat. Lori's squat form was excellent according to Tracy who also made the rounds to check our jabbing intensity level with a punching mitt. I love props almost as much as I loved the sensation and echo emitted when I connected with the punching mitt.

I've been rocking steady with exercise for about two and half years now and I almost felt as if I had never done one moment of cardio. I was worn out but definitely in a good way.



Update: After taking the boot camp class, I took a few laps around the track and it seems that another blogger caught me in stride with my new blue Danskin Now top on. It really is a small world after all.