When I wrote down my 2015 List of 100 Dreams in June, taking a yoga class was item #41. I am happy to say I have now done that. No, not the yoga class sponsored by Depends at BlogHer. It was a free community yoga offering on Sunday morning at the Lululemon in Cherry Hill Mall. My running buddy Lynda invited me, and my husband agreed to cover at home despite my having been gone for 2 days. So I went.
It was a decent workout. This particular teacher was into power yoga. I don’t cross train as much as I should, other than lugging around a 20-lb baby, and so my arms and abs felt it. I turn out to still be flexible from my years of dance classes growing up. I was able to get into the poses. I didn’t know what many of the names meant, but I followed Lynda. I think with practice I could get better at the poses I was less comfortable with, and I could see myself doing classes more regularly. It would be a good complement to running.
As for it being calming? Perhaps — though honestly, anything done on Sunday morning without four kids in tow is pretty relaxing. Grabbing coffee with Lynda afterwards was relaxing. Driving across the Ben Franklin Bridge with no one howling in the backseat was relaxing.
That said, I did have a few moments of calm later in the afternoon as well. I took the three big kids to a local nature preserve and we waded through the stream, hunting for “magic rocks” (busted up bits of various painted objects). It was 95 degrees out, but the stream was cool, and though I carried my daughter as we forded the deep parts and my 5-year-old nearly poked his eye out with a branch, we still had a pretty good time. I love seeing them laugh together as the July sunlight glints off the water like diamonds.
Are you a regular yoga practitioner?