Over my adult years, I took a few yoga classes at the YMCA and although I enjoyed the stretching, I didn't really feel a difference in my body. So, I kept running instead.
My cousin is a Bikram yoga teacher, and I knew there must be something really amazing about the practice that would convince her to go to California for nine weeks for training. Two days after my first half-marathon, I tried hot yoga for the first time. I was dehydrated, felt like the teachers were yelling at me, and wasn't sure what to make of the experience, but felt amazing in the days following. However, I only attended two classes because I couldn't do all of the postures and felt exposed, observed, and just plain weird.
A friend, who had transformed herself into a more confident, balanced, and happy person doing hot yoga, made me take a second look at the practice. My cousin, the Bikram teacher, is super thin and fit. I've never been like that and don't really want to do the hard work or the healthy eating required. So, I figured hot yoga just was not for me after my couple of bad class experiences. However, my friend spoke so highly of it, talked about crying on her mat, and just letting everything go. I really wanted that kind of spiritual renewal more than anything physical.
My friend told me about Revolution Hot yoga (RHY) and Rebecca (Jordan-Turner), and I came the first week the studio opened and have been attending pretty regularly in spurts, five days in row then not all for a week, since. I found Rebecca, Jane (Cable), and the other teachers so nice, supportive, and complimentary of my efforts. It didn't matter if I could do the postures 100%. What mattered was my effort.
I was super proud to make the 100+ practice club this past year because it shows the level of commitment I made to myself over the long haul.
Hot yoga got me through my dissertation at graduate school last year. There was a point where I couldn't really tell the difference between being asleep and being awake. I sat at the computer reading and writing all day, and at night, I dreamed I was sitting at the computer reading and writing. I even had dreams about footnotes. Really.
Yoga was something very different which took me out of that haze for a little while. In one class, Rebecca mentioned that padahastasana II was good for people who typed all day. After hearing that, I threw myself into the pose, standing on the palms of my hands waiting for my fingers to tingle which was both fun and relaxing. Because of hot yoga, I was able to keep off SOME of the dissertation weight.
After turning in the first draft of my dissertation, I did my own version of a thirty day challenge. Each week, I kept healing in new ways. My knee swelled up, and then went away. I popped my toe, and it got better. My back started hurting, stopped, and I was able to feel sensations I'd never felt there before. The month long experience was surreal and amusing to observe, but I just kept doing the yoga. If it had been anything else, I probably would have quit.
The fitness that comes with yoga is a nice byproduct for me. My yoga practice is about healing and meditation which Rebecca and Jane facilitate. Sometimes when I'm in class with them or right after, I just want to lie down and put my head in their laps because they are like yoga mommies to me. I study ritual and magic in graduate school--the ritual and magic of the English Renaissance--and yoga brings that to life for me in our little RHY studio.
I find something magical about this yoga: the meditation, the breath. Rebecca, Jane and Carmen (Cavanagh), the RHY studio, the Sanskrit, the Hindu gods, the candles, the twinkly lights, and THE LAVENDER FACE CLOTHS! :)
 |
| This is Tina Romanelli's yoga story Tina is now a teacher at RHY and is getting married this weekend! |
 |
| Go to RHY website |
No comments:
Post a Comment