Asana Comfortable Seat

Asana means "comfortable seat".  It does not mean "cirque du soleil performer".  Don't be discouraged or intimidated with crazy hard poses you see around Instagram.  Yoga Asana is about getting the body ready to sit comfortably in meditation.  You want to train your body to be a "friend and an accomplice" as Iyengar says in Light on Life.  Asana calms and strengthens the nervous system while yogic breathing or pranayama calms and strengthens the mind.  

Each pose that you advance to, you are to find comfort in it.  Comfort means that you can steady your gaze, take full complete breaths without strain, and find balance between the struggle and the ease.  

Yoga is not about joining the circus.  It's not about throwing yourself into a pose because your neighbor in class did it.  Challenging your body to go farther as your body says to, not your ego, can be right for some people.  Others will never stand on their heads and that is fine too.  Remember, it's not about being a carni.  It's about finding comfort in the uncomfortable.    

are my children out to get me?

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Photo cred Lululemon

Unlike a runner's high, yoga is cumulative.  You can miss a few days, a week or two and the effects of yoga can still linger.  For me, practicing at least once a week is necessary to be a normal human. Practicing twice a week increases my patience exponentially.  If I practice three or more times per week, my children become hilarious and not so annoying.  The shift is 180 degrees.  From thinking my children are surely out to get me to finding the humor in the things they do is what it's all about.   Yoga works.

Really Hot Yoga

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Carly Grace and Shannon 

After my pregnancy, I started back to yoga when my doctor said it was okay.  Not really, but listen to your doctor. I did my first post-partum, post C Section yoga class at 1 month after at Thunderbolt Power Yoga.  It was my friend Carly Grace's grand opening and I couldn't miss it.  I took it easy, all but the headstand leg lifts,  it was fine.  I did make a rookie mistake and instead of following my breath and listening to my body, my ego kicked in.  I was SO HEAVY, not in weight, but in feeling.  I was accustomed to feeling light as a bird in class and now I felt like a dump truck.  In this vigorous Baron Baptiste style class, we hopped around in chataranga a lot and I injured my big toe.  That's what happens when you follow your ego.  You get hurt.

At Thunderbolt and in Baptiste classes, they heat the room up to 90 degrees.  That's not too hot.  I've been in HOT yoga like Be Hot Yoga in Atlanta where it's easily 110 degrees. I swear it was 125 once.  Maybe not.  I took several classes there over 5 years ago.  I determined from those 6 classes that I did not do hot yoga.  It was not for my constitution.  Never to return.  

Well, things change.  Perspectives and needs change.  I did many classes after this pregnancy in vinyasa style warm rooms and I just wasn't getting what I needed.  I ran into my friend Jason, the owner of Be Hot, and decided to check out the studio again.  

Traditional style hot yoga classes do not flow or do vinyasa.  They have set postures of holding a pose for a minute, change; second set, 30 seconds, change.  

After my first class at Be Hot, where it is really hot, I felt like I'd lost 50 pounds.  I felt light again.

If you've tried yoga once and hated it, try it again.  All studios are different.  There are many different styles of yoga.  Each teacher at each studio is different.  The energy in each class is different.   

Traditional Bikram hot yoga classes are great for beginners and those with injuries.  They are also great for those that don't want to be hippy dippy or sing kumbaya.  Perfect for my husband.  Perfect for me right now.