An Unlikely Yogini

I have only two more weeks before my yoga buddy is ready to get back on the mat next to me. Hurray! I have been practicing alone, upstairs in my room. I feel some pressure to practice, these days, as a certain group of ladies may have passed on information to other ladies that I do yoga and like to talk about it. So, yours truly will be doing a class on yoga for Super Saturday. This is a stretch for me, pun intended. I am not a typical body doing yoga, in fact, I am usually the roundest body in my classes. I could have used this as a reason for quiting but I needed yoga and I fought back the feelings of  "unworthiness" to go after something that seemed the key to physical and spiritual progression.

My Mama Daughter introduced me to yoga back when she was single. I was so nervous and shy to be in a class and have someone watch my body. In that first class Mama Daughter went right to the front row and I stayed back, hoping no one would notice me. When I was siting cross-legged on the floor my knees felt like they would break under pressure. Why was I there? Because I was teaching music and movement to toddlers and they were up off the floor before me. My choice was to quit that endeavor or find a way to become more limber.

So I became a warrior for myself and found some good teachers whose voices I still hear in my head.

Lynelle Sjoberg was very supportive and she laid the groundwork for my understanding what yoga is. 

This is Lynelle, on the bottom. Haven't tried her Aeriel classes, I need a new and perfected body for that.

What is yoga? It is the yoking together of the mind and spirit with the body. I realized how unconnected my spirit was to my body when I could not answer the question, "What does your body need, right now?" When Paul says our bodies are temples the underlying teaching is that we must care for them. Not to care for them is like going to a run down shack and claiming that the spirit of God resides within, just push aside the garbage and clutter and wait for him to show up. He can show up there, I know, but He will begin the renovations as soon as he is invited to stay. A temple of God reflects who He is and what He can do.

A temple is not a perfect, worldly body but a responsive body; a body which allows light energy to flow through it, unrestricted. Speaking of restrictions, I have many to overcome, but I am amazed how willing my joints are to move if I respect and honor the body I have. 

I shall get off my soapbox and get back to doing the real work. I need to show up on the mat this morning.

Feel free to join me at Super Saturday, April 16th. If nothing else you can chortle at the little tubby woman bearing her soul about one of her passions.

Namaste!!