HOW I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOGA

I began doing yoga 8 years ago as a way to relieve stress. To my surprise I fell immediately in love, blindly, head over heels or more accurately, crown of head on floor, matsyasana style. Yes it happened in my very first yoga class in fish pose. I knew that very moment I would do yoga for the rest of my life.

I had walked past the studio many times and told myself I would go. Months later I purchased a $10 yoga mat at the local discount store. Still I walked past. About 6 months later, I walked into my first class. "Hi can I take your class?", "15 dollars please". "Please no shoes in the studio." No one really spoke to me but they spoke to each other. Being overly anxious all my life, I already felt out of place, but i had taken off my shoes and paid my $15 so I followed the others and laid out my mat. The class began.

"Close the mouth and breathe in and out through the nose only." Her voice was kind and it seemed like it was just part of the class, but I immediately realized she was saying this for my benefit. I was inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth, all the other students there already knew the breathing rules.

I remember being somewhat proud of how I could keep up for my first class, which I thought was a beginners class, but being my anxious, kooky self had mixed up the times and showed up for a mid-level class. And then the fish pose instruction came. "Elbows on the floor pushing in, opening the chest, arching the back and allowing the crown of the head to come to the floor". Well I knew that wasn't going to happen. My neck had been severely injured in a drunk driving accident 15 years earlier and I had ever since held my head and neck far forward and still had a limited range of motion, bone spurs and arthritis. I was astounded when I came into the pose, easily and without any discomfort.

And then it happened. My life literally passed before my eyes and all the pain and despair I had felt for the last 36 years related to my brother's death washed out of me in one small tear that fell down the side of my face.

Then it was savasana (dead man's pose), of which I barely could stay still for "what just happened to me?" kept running through my head. Then the class was over and everyone quickly ushered themselves out of the studio. I was dying to ask someone what just happened to me, but there was no one to ask, even the teacher had to hurry away after class. But I was hooked... yoga was my new love.