Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Yin

After weeks of illness & crazy moving, things are finally starting to calm down.  I still have a little bit of a cough, but not enough to scare people off of their mats so I decided to attend a class at Bliss Flow last night.  Part of my teacher training requires a minimum of two classes taught by BF Master Teachers and unfortunately my schedule only allows for two classes a week.  One of the classes is Yin Yoga.  Last night I attended that particular class and had my first experience with Yin.  I didn’t really know what to expect so I was glad that Marta (the instructor) explained a little bit at the beginning of class.  Basically it was fairly easy stretchy stuff but holy crap; they make you hold your poses for what feels like 20 minutes!  Really, though it was like 3 minutes each.  I really struggled with a few poses.  Not so much getting into them, but holding them.  Towards the end of the 3 minutes I would get very antsy and keep repositioning myself. I focused on my Ujjayi breath (yes I just googled the spelling-looks like I won’t be graduating anytime soon) to help me through it, but boy oh boy sometimes that didn’t even help.   On the flip side I was able to go really deep into some of the stretches.  Deeper than I’ve been able to go since I was in the 6th grade!  The Ujjay breathing (that one was from memory) really did help.  With about every other exhale I was able to go deeper without killing myself.  Imagine my total surprise when three quarters of the way thru my seated forward bend I felt my forehead graze my kneecaps!   All in all, it was a good “first day back” class.  Nothing too crazy, and it felt good with the right amount of pain