I Tried Yoga!

On Saturday, I tried yoga. When I set my resolution to Don't Rush, yoga was high up on my priorities for the month. I've always wanted to be the type of person who attends yoga classes; yoga mat under one arm, serene look on my face. I've always seen Yoga is a lifestyle, not just a class you attend weekly. When yoga kept coming up in the self-help literature as the greatest practice to bring calm into your life, I decided to finally give it a go. 

Many people try Yoga to tone up, to increase their strength and balance, or just to explore their inner self. I wanted to find the yogi pace of life. So I signed up to a 2 hours 30 mins workshop in Yoga Dublin studios in Dundrum to learn all the basics.

I was super nervous about having to spend such a huge amount of time in the one room with complete strangers, but our instructor really helped to settle us all in by getting us to write down on paper a one word reason for attending the class. Many of us had the same motives - de-stress, find calm, improve flexibility... And from these reasons for signing up, I think all of us got what we wanted out of the class.

We started by practicing our foot placements to increase balance and building up our wrist strength. With these new found skills, we were quickly able to master some of the most popular yoga poses -  the Downward Dog and Warrior stance.

But yoga is about so much more than the physical. Our instructor also encouraged us to practice controlled mindful breathing exercises before we practised a noting meditation.

As the class came to an end, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of complete calm. While some of my muscles ached from new movements, I was serene. Yoga seemed to combine everything I had been exploring throughout May, and I hadn't been expecting that. Putting my noting meditation into practice during a class was extremely beneficial, and I was glad I had practised it just the weekend beforehand.

Our instructor left us with two key pieces of advice:

• Its not about what you do its about why and how you do it.
• And lay your foundation before you try to build a house.

I've been working on my foundation for the past two days, and I plan on keeping it up every evening as part of my regular exercise routine. But yoga is more than a fitness class; it's a lifestyle. And I am putting my new yogi attitude into practice every day.

Namaste