First Practice?

Well the very first practice I am not going to lie, I was more concern with the fact that I wore a dress(abetted a long, breezy dress...but still a dress). Not only was I distracted by the fact that I wore a dress(when if I read the syllabus I would have known better).....I kept comparing my previous yoga  class. Things like: "Man I miss the music"; "Hmmmm we are in a classroom versus a gym type place"; "Is it lighter in here than it used to be"; "Ugh I knew I should have read that thing"; "Oh I know this pose." Anyway I said all that to say my mind was fluctuating a lot. Therefore I didn't get much out of my first practice.....now the second is a different story. I got a good work out and I my legs were stiff for at least two days afterwards.

So after reading the syllabus, which I should get in a habit of doing, I see that the blog has to at least 250 words and I can write about my experience in and out of class.

The one thing I did take from the first day of practice it the correct way to stand and I have been correcting my stance ever since. It felt really foreign at first but now I don’t have to correct myself as much.  I noticed that I slouch…a lot. I slouch when I am sitting, walking, and standing so my main focus is to make spine straight and open my chest cavity. At first and even now I laugh at myself because it seems like I am poking my breast out (and I am but not for the reason that people usually do).  I also push down on my lower back, trying to make my butt flesh go down but I still don’t know that it is working. Pretty soon at least hopefully pretty soon I will do actual poses but for now correcting my stance and straightening my spine seems good.

Why Yoga?

So I am suppose to tell you my previous experience with yoga, why I chose this class, and what I intend to gain from this experience. The answer to all the question is the same. I will start with the first question, my first experience with yoga began last fall semester. I needed a HP course and I always wanted to try yoga so it was an easy decision. Before the course, I had no prior experience with yoga; therefore I went into the class with only the "what I see in movie" versions of yoga. Basically I went in thinking "I will be really flexible by the time I get out of this wink wink". However,  what I ended up learning, gaining, and leaving with from the course was so much more than the ability to stretch my body in funky ways. This may sound weird, or fake, or like I trying to get browning points for being philosophical.....but I gain a whole new perspective on life. I relearned how to think, how to approach situation(stressful or no), how to breathe, and how to be consciously living in the moment(which is mighty difficult to do.....believe it or not). The class and Professor Zolin aka Shane taught me how to find balance...how to take five minutes out of everyday and be in myself and breathe. How to not think about what assignments I needed to finish, or what friend I "have to have to" talk to, what I  need to go to the store and by....it taught me how to silence my thoughts and just be......I miss that. So that is why I am taking this class even more so than I need it to graduate. That HP class spark my interest in yoga and when I saw this BIC course I jump on it because I missed the peace I used to feel after every session. I realize by writing this Blog and reading the first three chapters of the book that I let excuses get in the way of my practice and I wondered why I don't feel one with myself like I did that semester. Sorry that was a tangent now back to the topic. I suppose what I want to gain from this experience is the means and will and want to keep up this practice....to make yoga more that just a course but a way of my life.....to wake everyday and spend the first minutes or hours centering myself before I start my day. I want to find that balance, that peace, and that just in general good feeling I had but I want to be able to keep it, nourish it, make it flourish, and let it spill over into my every day life and not just that hour or so time spot.


I suppose to simply answer the question I took a semester of yoga last fall and really liked it. When I found out that a capstone was being offered for it I jumps all over the opportunity. I hope to gain that good feeling I once had when I practiced it before.(apologies for the grammatical errors)

PS in reading I this blog I noticed I said I a lot......I suppose that will be another thing that needs to happen....figuring out how to eliminate the I in my yoga and making it more.