For the love of yoga
Yesterday I led 12 sunny, sweaty students through 108 sun salutations. I love leading and practicing the 108. On the journey, you go through a range of emotions and thoughts:
why am I doing this?, I love this!, I hate this!, I’m so bored of sun salutations, hang out I just did 20 without thinking about it, what happened?, I’m so sweaty, I’m so blissed out, when will this end?, I don’t want this to end…
At the end one of the students said to me that at around the 70 mark she finally surrendered and in doing so the practice felt magic. I loved that.
Whilst watching their faces flicker through the emotional roller coaster of doing such a disciplined sadhana, I was jealous I wasn’t on the mat with them but someone had to keep count! So later in the afternoon, I arrived at the studio a little early for class and flowed through maybe 30 or 40 sun salutations.
After a day spent with Cyclone Frank, now 21 months old and wilder than a whirling dervish at full speed I had to resist the urge to take legs up the wall and instead battled through the first ten while my brain went through all the things I needed to organise for the week ahead. I got annoyed with myself, so turned the music on and out bellowed a favourite in my yoga playlists. The XX, Angels.
Oh how I found my groove. Each pose linking perfectly with my breath along to the sweet sounds filling the room. I could literally feel my heart expanding. A good friend and yoga teacher on the Sunshine Coast calls this the yoga buzz. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t and that’s just the way it is.
I realised yesterday I hadn’t had it for a while. Too caught up in life, in mothering, in moving house, setting up a studio, rushing through each day with a list of jobs as long as my arm and then…exhale…move with your breath, a meditation like no other.
Today I can still feel the soft glow of my yoga buzz surrounding me. I feel warmer, lighter and with a full heart I feel in love with the world, my life, my students, my fellow teachers, this town (and of course Cyclone Frank and Buttons). Long may it last.
I know there is a big debate in the yoga world about practicing to music. In my vinyasa practice it’s crucial. My amazing teachers at Laughing Lotus San Fran taught us how to make playlists as much as they taught us how to teach triangle pose. (God damn it though, I still can’t ever compete with Emily Stone’s rocking playlists, one day she will lend me her iTunes library so i can steal them all!).
For me the right song can take me out of my head and into a whole new space. I’d love to hear what your current favourite tunes to flow
dance with me
on your yoga mat to are. Share in the comments. and if you’re interested in mine, find me on Spotify and me dance with me.
