Learning about your body through Iyengar yoga

Yesterday, I tried Iyengar yoga for the first time. Even though I've been doing vinyasa flow yoga for some time, I felt out of place. First of all, everyone in class faced a different wall. The teacher looked like a woman in tiny cotton shorts and white limber legs. And he spoke gibberish. At first I thought he was English, then Irish, and then he started barking commands in German so by the end of the class, I thought he is for sure German. Except his last name is Cabanis. Doesn't sound German to me.

He was part Nazi, part Hindu, part nymph, part leprechaun yoga instructor. He started us off with Hindu chants and then said, "This is Iyengar yoga. Welcome to the third circle of hell." Insert evil laugh.

He marched around with a stick and would point at your leg or abs or something that was too low or too high and tell you to move it down or up or sideways. He loved whipping that stick around. If he was giving a demonstration and the class didn't move fast enough over to look, he would start talking really fast and hard like a German nanny. Git over here! Git over here! Git over here!
Iyengar yoga is intense about the exact way to hold a pose. Once you learn exactly what all your muscles are supposed to be doing, your chest lifted high, the skin of your hip bone stretching one way, while your back inner leg pulls up, and your organs are held in place, then you hold it for a few long minutes. When I listened carefully and tried to do everything he asked of us, I was surprised to find myself breaking up in a sweat over my entire body while I held my body still. Something about those poses release heat like nobody's business.

I learned that when I do a shoulder stand, I put all my weight on my left shoulder. Cabanis walked over and took my vertical legs with both arms and lifted it...but couldn't. He said, Oh stubborn body! That's when I realized, damn, my body is heavy! He said, that is your problem. Your body really does not want to go up. And you are on one shoulder. Do you feel that?

I did. Wow, my left shoulder was hurting and I didn't even notice it. The instructor in all his idiosyncracies was very good about understanding each student's weaknesses and the ways their bodies compensated in unhealthy ways. It made me feel self conscious and suddenly aware of how my left shoulder hangs lower and how I walk kind of crooked. Oh dear.

Overall I had fun. It was a nice change of pace from the sensitive heart opening yoga I've become so accustomed to. And learning how to hold a pose correctly would definitely help your Vinyasa practice. But it was intense. Surrounded by all those fit no fat people, getting my buttocks and legs lifted into the year by my German instructor, and trying to stretch the skin of my hip when i don't even know what that means and realizing my body balance is completely off...woweeee. It was interesting. I'm gonna give it some time before I do it again.

Level 1 Yoga with F.Noori & Centering Prayer

Yesterday, I went to Level 1 Yoga with F.Noori. The class was held in the west wing which I'd never been in before. I went in and everybody had laid their mats perpendicular to the walls and had their blocks, straps, and blankets all ready. I felt like I was in the big leagues. I tried to pretend like I knew what I was doing and got all my props too.

F. is a Persian woman with a very gentle yet firm teaching voice. I was happy to realize soon enough that I could keep up. Gentle Yoga with Bruce Schwartz had given me a very good grounding in breathing and fundamental alignments. I definitely had some moments where my legs were shaking like crazy and it was all I could do to concentrate on breathing to keep my balance.

But what I loved about this class was the mindfulness F. kept bringing us back to. We started off with clearing our minds and a little bit of quiet, closed eyes meditation. Then she explained exactly what we needed to do and what it was doing for us in terms of opening up our muscles and ligaments. She described how when we stretch and push our bodies to open up more, especially in our chest, it brings us greater awareness of not only how our bodies are doing, but how we are doing emotionally. At the end of every sequence, she would say gently with a smile, Ok, How are you doing? and give us time to think about it. And then she'd ask, What is your body telling you? Listen to yourself.

She did this throughout the 90 minute session. Bringing us back to the breath. Saying over and over, "be present." Be present to this very moment.

Wow. By the end of my time, the space in my chest had expanded from a miniscule tight speck to an expansive well that could house all that I was and felt. I felt grounded, centered, and unshakable. And of course, my body felt damn good.

I raced off to the first session of a home centering prayer meeting at S.'s house in east Pdena. And here is the really interesting part. She has two cats, Charlotte and Emily Bronte. Emily is excruciatingly shy and never comes out to meet strangers. In fact, S.'s niece came to visit her for a week and it took her three days to finally venture out from under the bed. Well, while we were doing centering prayer, Emily came out and watched us. That in itself is pretty unheard of.

But here's the kicker. After K. left and it was just me and S., Emily came over and sat on my lap and stayed with me for a good hour. S. was stunned and said in 11 years, Emily has never ever done that and it must be because I'm coming off incredibly centered. I'm not even a cat person!

Apparently, Emily is a healer and knows exactly when you're not doing well. Maybe it was a combination of my hard days and being centered despite it all that drew her to me.

At the end of my yoga session, we bowed "head to heart." I didn't understand it at first but then I got it. It's a way of saying heart, before the mind. We will be led by our hearts, not analysis and overthinking. Big happy sigh.

Gentle Yoga with Bruce Schwartz

Today I raced out of work, drove home, parked (thank God the guy next to me stayed within the line), put my peonies in a vase (i wish i could show you how beautiful they are), slipped into yoga clothes (hurray for my new lululemon yoga pants), slung my purple mat on my back, and started walking down the hill to Yoga House.

Within five minutes, I was being handed my props by co-owner/teacher Bruce Schwartz.  I've done Level I yoga with B.S. once and had the most amazing feeling afterwards.  It was like my inner energy had broken loose and was beaming out like a beacon throughout the day.

Gentle Yoga didn't do quite that but it was exactly what I needed.  When I walked away from the studio, eating my apple, savoring the lingering traces of yogic tea, this is the thought that filled my being:  I love my body.

I felt connected to my body and respected it for what it had done.  All the tension was gone.  My mind had traveled to my breath and down to my center and the frantic ping-ponging of thoughts had stilled to a simple breath and step.  I was thankful to walk, eat my apple, swing my mat, and enjoy the evening breeze back to my apartment.  My body felt goood.

Favorite moment:   When we were doing corpse pose at the end, B.S. walked around adjusting everyone.  He took my shoulders and pressed them down into the ground and held them there.  DAMN.  I near melted into the earth.

15 class series baby.