Yoga Update: First post in...forever!

It's been a long time since I've visited this space. I took most of September off from yoga since I had been sick with either laryngitis or a cold. Back in the swing of things on October 1, I resumed my classes.

It became a little too much to squeeze in two 1.5-hour classes per week, so I started attending once a week on Tuesdays following my University class. THEN, Tuesdays became so full I moved to the Monday afternoon class, and what a switch!

Still with Pat, the Monday afternoon crowd is just that - a crowd. I'm used to a class of six or ten people at lunch hour. Monday afternoons are a zoo! Upwards of twenty to thirty people in the studio, and let me say for the record: I find it MOST discomforting to enter the studio, trying to relax and focus on my breath while four or so students (also regulars)sit on their yoga mats chatting up a storm before class. I was told that the yoga studio was a sacred place, and could I kindly remove my shoes while on site. I think there too should be a rule of relative silence, or at least respect for your neighbour, once you're in the practice space.

A couple weeks ago I accidentally left my yoga mat behind after class. I went in the following day and it was gone. No one had tucked it in the lost and found, or with the public yoga mats. I was sad. I'd come to love my mat - it's something of one's own 12-square-feet of personal space; growth and regenerative space - my own sacred ground.

When I returned this past Monday, I still didn't have it, and chose to use one of the public mats instead of shelling out another $90.00 for my own. I entered the space already... well... pissed off, to be honest. To think that someone who takes yoga would have taken my mat seems to, in my mind, go against what yoga stands for - being honest. Then I thought, "Well, there's being 'honest' with yourself in your practice, and then there's being 'honest' with other people - I guess the two are not the same."

Thankfully, at the end of my practice that day I had let go of my feelings of anxiety and anger about the loss of my treasured mat. On my way out the door, I claimed my shoes from the rack. Looking down to put my shoes on, I noticed a yoga mat rolled up, standing on end behind the potted plant to the left of the door. It was, indeed, my mat.

I was happy, and felt a little ashamed of having suspected someone at the studio of having taken my mat.

Pat is really good at reminding us that each breath we take is a gift; in each exhale, we return that gift.

I'm going to block some time this weekend for yoga.

It seems the thing to do.