Social Workout

Workout

Abhyasa won me over...

Okay, so I've been carrying around a pretty big bias against standard yoga classes and studios for a very long time, since about ten years ago, when I took a few classes at various well-known studios in Manhattan and found the whole experience sort of stressful, often like a competition for who could sweat and bend and pose the best, which didn't really do much for me or my body...

For the next eight years or so I shunned yoga altogether, but then slowly started adding it into my routine last year after some injuries, and I found that I appreciated and understood it so much better than I had before, and my body seemed to respond very positively, so I gradually developed a pretty regular home practice, which has morphed into a more or less daily activity for the past six months, and I've thought about trying a class again somewhere, but I was really worried about having another bad experience and maybe getting turned off from yoga for another ten years...

But today I took the plunge and finally walked into this studio that's just a few blocks from my building, and I did a 90-min basic class with the owner and just two other students, and it's not that it was mind-blowing or anything like that, but it was a fully positive experience, both mentally and physically, and it was a nice change from my usually solitary and self-guided practice, and I think I will actually go back, so it feels like a big accomplishment for me...

Then I bought a really beautiful plant on the way home. Then I did a bunch of squats/lunges/push-ups/etc., and then an hour of pilates. Now I'm tired, but pretty pleased with myself, and glad it's the weekend!