Took Steven’s class at the Lotus yesterday — which I loved — and felt again post him and Jeremi on Friday morning, that connection to “I wish I could do that.”
Most of the fancy, party trick poses that I lusted after are now in my repertoire, although if we’re being totally honest, some of them might require a little dusting off.
And just now watched a yoga teacher I don’t know’s promo video doing all those arm balance/handstand kind of things that testosterone seems to make us dudes crave. [Although he’s also got some maneuvers with a medicine ball that I find rather baffling.]
This seems to be a theme because yesterday — thanks to Susan’s inspiration — post-class I checked out a rival hot springs, the Imperial Day Spa, which I really liked.
Now I know how this sounds, but in the steam room, a stranger sat next to me and struck up a conversation.
His opening line, referring to my cross legged sitting position, was “I wish I could do that.” (And then he proceeded to chat about how and why yoga had come into his life and why it was important to him.)
Anyway, I still remember moments from years ago where I first encountered a pose in a class or a book or a video and said, “I wish I could do that,” myself — like Dana doing peacock for the first time in a class at the old Crunch on Broadway & Bleecker — although lately that impulse has been sort of dormant.
For me, nowadays the emotional/mental alignment is so much more compelling (and more challenging and more NECESSARY) than just the physical practice. (Hence, that’s why I wrote UPWARD DOG — and again, I suggest you stop what you’re doing and download the FREE ebook right now.]
But now that I’m back in the swing of teaching poses, I am reconnecting with that star-struck desire once I see someone in a badass move to start calculating just what it would take to get that into my repertoire.
It seems sort of fun again to expand my asana accomplishments, rather than just resting on my laurels.
And — as you can see below — I still can pull some tricks out of the yoga hat when the photo shoot demands it.
But again, for me, the more challenging yoga is to remember to take the beach walks with Belle and Susan (as we did yesterday despite the November nippiness), and practice taking life one breath at a time.
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