My New Obsession

A couple of weeks ago, a friend invited me to a Saturday morning yoga session.  I'd never tried yoga before (except for a couple of times with a video), and I was really curious about our local studio, so I went.

Let me just stop here and say that the first time you do yoga, you may feel like you are going to die.  There will be people in the class that are much more advanced than you, who can do crow and handstands like it was nothing.  You will go there and see people thirty or forty years older than you who can complete an hour long session without getting red in the face.  So, I'll just repeat the advice that our instructor gives us on a regular basis:  pay attention to your own mat, not someone else's.  This particular discipline really is a journey, so everyone is at a different place on the road.

So, yeah, I felt like I was going to die.  But then I felt sooo good.  And I knew I had to come back.  I actually enjoyed it, and after doing it for a couple of weeks, I can recognize other important benefits as well.

I have a very stressful life, for reasons all my readers should be aware of by now.  If you don't know what I'm referring to, then go back and read every post I ever wrote about autism.  I find myself now, after going to this studio for an hour twice a week and hour and a half on the weekends, breathing.

And by breathing, I mean that when I feel stressed, or scared, it's almost automatic now for me to focus on how I'm breathing, and reminding myself of where I am, what I'm doing right at that moment, and that everything is okay.

This really ties in with mindfulness, which is something that some psychologists use to help people who deal with anxiety and other issues.  Mindfulness means actively thinking about where you are, what you are doing, what is happening around you, and so on.  It means being in the moment.  It does not mean worrying about the future, inviting trouble, getting angry, allowing stress or anxiety to control you, or anything of that nature.

So, what does Namaste mean, anyway?  We say it at the end of every session.  Basically it means, I bow to you.  The deeper meaning is I bow to the divine in you, I bow to the God in you, The divine in me recognizes the divine in you, etc.  For me it is acknowledgment that we are children of God, that each of us has that within us.  And that is a beautiful thing.