{"id":2513,"date":"2016-05-11T18:32:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T08:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/?p=2513"},"modified":"2019-04-30T14:23:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T04:23:02","slug":"yoga-project-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/yoga-project-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoga Project update"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been remiss. I launched the Yoga Project<\/a>, started my quest for enhanced mental and physical flexibility, and then went silent. You’re probably wondering how it all turned out. Have I become a human pretzel? Have I attained enlightenment?<\/p>\n

I haven’t been completely silent. About a year ago, I published an article<\/a> on the esteemed web platform known as Elephant Journal <\/a>about why yoga is not just about being bendy. I gave unsolicited and probably foolish advice to the hamstring-impaired like me who might be scared of starting to practice because they’re so inflexible.<\/p>\n

In fact, since embarking on the project in the fall of 2013, yoga has become a permanent fixture of my existence in Vancouver. Why? I’m glad you asked. Here are a few reasons:<\/p>\n

I’ve met a lot of wonderful people in my yoga classes (translation: I weaseled my way into some after-class coffee gatherings) and these lovely people are now my friends. I have friends!<\/em> This has helped me immensely with the transition to this new city. In all honesty, my social life has never been better. This is probably because after a yoga class people are incredibly open and welcoming, their inhibitions somewhat lowered. I highly recommend this strategy for anyone who is dealing with moving to a new place. There’s just something reassuring about having other humans recognize and greet you. And if you’re in Canada, they give you a hug. Oxytocin, anyone?<\/a><\/p>\n

I swear my body craves certain yoga postures. I can almost touch the floor with my fingertips in a forward fold without bending my knees, and it actually feels good. Downward facing dog? Ahhh. Sweet back relief.<\/p>\n

For a while I went to class almost every day; now I’m back to a sustainable 3-4 classes a week, the low-key hatha variety. Occasionally I’ll take in a kundalini when I feel like dancing. Just last week I explained the philosophy to a newbie on the mat next to me, recalling how I felt that first time I tried it<\/a>. Crazy stuff.<\/p>\n

I’d like to say I’ve completely gotten over myself, the self-consciousness and self-judgment that were on display in my first couple of Yoga Project posts,<\/a> but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from yoga, it’s that there’s always something more to learn about yourself. But I’ve made amazing progress. I OWN my yoga. If I can’t do something, that’s cool. It doesn’t matter. I just breathe instead. Ommmm.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I am still picky about my teachers. There’s one teacher, beloved by just about everyone else, who talks all the time, <\/em>seriously non-stop, about philosophy and cosmic energy and stuff like that. But I come to yoga to get a break from my brain, thank you very much. I find myself editing the sentences being spoken, which is even worse. “Practice reaching your arms up and out of your shoulders,” he says. Practice?? Just do it, already! Stop gerund-ifying everything! <\/em>There’s another teacher who also philosophizes quite a bit, but it’s done in a humorous, slightly self-deprecating way. Some teachers bark out instructions, moving too fast for me. Then there are the young women with vocal fry<\/a>. I don’t know why this speech mannerism irritates me so much, but it does. I also have issues with receiving life wisdom advice from someone half my age. There’s that.<\/p>\n

The good news is that I know all these issues are about me, and not the teacher or the yoga, and because Semperviva is such a big studio, there are still a few teachers who pass my stringent irritability criteria while I continue the important work of getting over myself. That’s progress, right?<\/p>\n

No, I have not become a human pretzel. No, I have not attained enlightenment. (In fact, I’ve probably gained a few pounds, but that’s my age, or so I tell myself.) But those things don’t matter to me any more, because they were never part of my journey to begin with. I just didn’t know that at the time.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1783\"And now, thanks to all those after-yoga coffee klatches, I have a spectacular collection of latt\u00e9 art.<\/p>\n

Namast\u00e9!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been remiss. I launched the Yoga Project, started my quest for enhanced mental and physical flexibility, and then went silent. You’re probably wondering how it all turned out. Have I become a human pretzel? Have I attained enlightenment?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[286,4,283,6],"tags":[323,324,175,321,322,274],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1R58n-Ex","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2513"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2521,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions\/2521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}