I'm a tree, I can bend...Yogi style

Today I'm jump starting a long forgotten and abandoned yoga practice. I have DVDs tucked away somewhere in the condo (that I hope to dig out and revisit by the end of the week). However, since I am feeling awfully lazy on this Monday, I am going to start with a youtube video for today's practice.

My journey into yoga began yoga in 2004. though I had been interested in yoga since 1993. Lois was a therapist I stated seeing in 2004 and she gave me a lot of valuable tools to place inside my emotional tool box; one of those was yoga. My first mat was part of a beginner package that included a mat, a bag, and beginner DVD. At the time, my one bedroom apartment was mostly carpeted and so small, I practiced in the kitchen. My practice was sporadic. My ex was not supportive and mocked me for it, though I never fully gave up on it. I have purchased many DVDs over the years, too insecure to attend a live class. In 2015, I finally broke down and attended different classes. This was a time when my weight was ballooning beyond anything I had ever experiences before. I was in physical and emotional pain and I was losing my ability to walk. One of my favorite experiences was being in a class at a yoga studio near my house. While lying on the mat, the instructor literally banged on a gong in the room. It sounds silly and airy-fairy. I know this. However, I cannot even fully express how healing it was to be bathed in those vibrations. It was powerful. I may have even cried in class that day. It isn't uncommon for me to cry during yoga since there is such a strong connection to opening the body and the heart; it can bring up big emotions for me. I've learned to understand and accept this about my personal yoga practice. Again, my attendance in these classes and retreats was sporadic. The last yoga class I attended was probably close to January or February of 2018. It was a deep stretching raja yoga class with a teacher I adore, Christine Lewis. As much as I love the benefit of yoga, there is a whole process to getting to class each on time, without turning into an Ellen Degeneres joke (minute 1:10 or so). Sometimes I was fatigued or wanted to stay up late Friday night. Sometimes I was just too insecure in my size to show up. Her classes were crowded and not all attendees had Christine's forgiving, non body shaming energy. So, like most things, I stopped going. So because I have had heal pain since August and stopped and started 21 Day Fix and Country Heat workouts without much enthusiasm to sustain my exercise program, I thought maybe I should return to the basics and re-start a yoga practice. Maybe this will allow some time for my heel to heal fully before I move on to anything more strenuous. Since this is about mindfulness and awareness, I feel as if this is a perfect place to begin again. Yoga will allow the lotus to open and kindness and forgiveness to emerge. Those elements have been missing with all the other starts and stops in my recent attempts to lose weight and get in shape. I think it's time to reconnect with self and be gentle. So, time to roll out the mat, burn the incense and turn on the chanting.

Namaste, MFers. ;]