Yoga: All About Nourishment

I'm officially using this blog to endorse Natasha's Saturday afternoon Seven Dollar Yoga class at Mission Street Yoga in South Pasadena. The last time I went I learned all about the power of the will. This time we talked about nourishment. The idea that challenges in our lives are nourishment to our soul.

There was a lot of noise in class today. My friend Nic and I were catching up. I was taking about my Dad who's sick. She was talking about her Dad who just passed away recently. And then we were shushed. I'm serious. Like we were in the library. We were shushed by an annoying older gentleman. And he wasn't annoying because he was old. He was annoying because two minutes later he yelled across the studio, "Hey Barry, how's it going?" And then he proceeded to hit on a woman at the end of class. "I promised you last time that I would give you my card. Here ya go!" I must have known how annoying he was because I turned to Nicole and said, "I am not going to stop talking."

But once we got into the practice, I felt like I was flying. I always get to this place in class where my mind just lets go. I remember hearing about how meditation and yoga is best when you empty your mind. But I never could do it. And now I'm finding myself just opening up. The stretches were opportunities for me to nourish my muscles. I was nourishing my soul by opening my heart and pushing harder.

I had a fantastic tree pose where I grew up and out. And in my dancer pose I had quite the arabesque.

I smiled at the cute boy across the room from me, only because Natasha had instructed us to. He smiled back only because she had asked him to. But it was still nice to be smiled at. . And it's always nice to smile during practice because that's the heart and the body opening up. I'm finding that my practice is better than ever. The stronger my body has gotten, the stronger my connection to my mind and spirit has been. Funny how that works. The poses felt effortless today, yet full of intention and commitment. I'm becoming a real yogi, what can I say?