Yoga'ing...

A little backstory….
Back in the day (Lets say early 20’s or so), I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Whatever. I also had a problem with “relaxing”. Whatever. This was causing me and my body an extremely difficult amount of badness. (Mind you I was working almost full time, going to school full time and full time in the OCC Repertory Theater and pretty much sleeping – oh - maybe 1 or 2 hours a night). So ya – I was a bit nuts. So when my doctors/physical therapists/chiropractor/mom/and others were frantically trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me, why I was always sick, why I was a nut, why I couldn’t sleep or relax or calm down, etc etc and etc. I was sent to massage/yoga/acupuncture/acupressure/pills/I could go on and on with all the crap we tried. I was pretty much deemed an “Extremist” at this point. (I did EVERYTHING to the extreme – drugs, working out, theater, etc). It wasn’t until one of my injury visits to my chiropractor that he finally flipped out on me. “That’s it!!!! You’re a mess!!!! Your going to yoga!!!”. Now – I had done the yoga thing as I told him…. “No – this is different – this is bikram yoga, one of the most difficult forms of yoga, and its hot yoga – so its done in a hotter then hell room. Its perfect for you. It will kick your ass. If it doesn’t help I’m throwing you into a padded room and we’re going to box it out.”. He handed me a mat, the yoga lady’s card and shoved me out the door. I arrived at the studio a few days later quite skeptical. I aced my 1st class. I loved it. I took it pretty regularly (2-3 days a week) for almost a year. Everyone noticed a difference in me and I loved it. Life has gotten in the way since then (all you readers know) so between that and finances I haven’t gone really much anymore. I went a few months ago and almost died. This is when I realized how pathetically out of shape I was, out of sorts, out of everything. I made a goal to get active again. SO – T and I started doing some yoga research. I had heard about this place thru a friend and a sweet deal they were offering so T and I decided to check it out. Its called Soul at Home in Tustin. It offers a crapload of different classes, is a day spa, a store and just plain adorable. So we signed up for 2 weeks unlimited to try all the different classes and see if we want to do the amazing year deal they got goin right now.
Now. I was prepared not to have my ass kicked like I’m normally used too. But I have now come to the realization that I will never be a true “Yogi”. Our 1st class we took was the Beginner/Level 1 yoga class. Soon as our flustered little instructor started in T glanced over at me and mouthed “I’m sorry”, knowing I was already bored out of my skull. Lets just say I wont be taking that class ever again. Class 2 – Pilates. I’ve never taken pilates. I’ve heard about it and always wanted to try it. I liked it! I would have preferred the class go longer, but it was fun – I felt I got a bit of a workout – especially on this leg lifting bit when I felt that fire rush thru my thighs that I haven’t felt in years…(that sounded so dirty….). Anywhoo – Class 3 – Candlelight Flow Yoga. Now by the name of this I knew this was a mellower class but I’m trying to be open minded. We were up on the wall half the time, which was a bit bizarre to me, but whatever. I find I do like the “flow” aspect and I hope to maybe find a class that just keeps flowing and doesn’t pause so fucking much. Our instructor was a doll, she was nice, her voice beautiful, a total hippy yogi but not the kind you want to beat down. She rang these little bowl thingies above each of us at the end of class and read us a little passage. Nice class for chillin. Class 4 – Medatative Flow….Right? This was not quite was I expected. When the dude said “We’ll be holding some positions for about 3-5 minutes.” WTF! We started off doing pretty much “flowy” stuff which I liked but then did 4…count them 4 poses. THAT’S IT! Ok, ya meditative…whatever. He did the bowl thing too at the end, but his was super f-ing loud. It was kind of a trip and I’m sure it’s a lovely experience if your not near the door listening to annoying little bitches laughing and talking right outside. Class 5 – Tai Chi. Loooooooooved this. Its so beautiful and I’ve always wanted to try it. T had done it years ago and gave me a bit of an idea. The class was an actual “I’m going to teach you this” class. The 1st hour or so we’d move ever so slightly and stop and the instructor would adjust us. Then we worked on footwork, then we did the actual pattern once. Then he told us about the martial arts aspect and basically made us realize he could kill someone with his pinky. Oh and bonus – the instructor – HAWT. He had the perfect body…lean, muscular, his voice was awesome, when we did our hip rotations…lets just say my mind ran away with me….oooo…ok anyway. The crappy thing is – there’s only 2 more classes! I hope it starts up again, but I’m not sure. Class 6 – Level 1-2 yoga. This is when I realized I’m never going to get a workout and no I’m not about meditating and breathing and yes I’m really good at it and can do it and yes its nice and I get stretched out and what not but I was hoping for a good class last nite. It wasnt bad mind you – really at all. The gal was adorable, she gave us orange oils and read us a story and I learned what “binding” poses are….WTF!!!! Altho I think I shocked her when I actually did the thing. That’s right – little newbie can do a “Bird of Paradise!”. Its weird, but I did it! Anywhoo….I like it, I do. I just want more of a challenge…but the hot tai chi guy said there is one instructor that’ll kick my ass – so I’m looking forward to trying her class out. There’s also an “Oceana Hula” coming up which sounds interesting and I'm sure there's all kinds of different classess and I love variety...., so I will be signing up for the year deal because its such a great deal – but when I do think I’ll be popping back into my hot bikram yoga maybe once a week……