Wednesday 24 February 2016

DSTSS - bend and stretch

72. Take up yoga

good lordy - the days are ticking by and i still think about how i am ever going to finish "my don't sweat the small stuff" project.

it's amazing, how when the storm ends and you find yourself in calm waters that it seems like the right thing to do to just move on.  but I AM NOT A QUITTER. i am prepared to do this last 30 chapters for 1 year at a time if i have to....i'll be in my 80's in my zimmer frame, but i don't care. this is the ultimate closure.

okay, so that was a bit dramatic, but i want to finish this and even if no one else cares, i do, cause for me, it was the door to keeping my calm and sanity as i transitioned from trauma to triumph.

so clearly from that i might need a bit of yoga to relax!

i didn't really get yoga - it was all hippie shit and then one day i decided to go to a class in about 1995 or 6 maybe, and in west end.  hippie central!! it was very relaxing and i remember one class that i felt this incredible relaxation.  (it was like i imagined a stoner must feel) ok, so in my youth, i did partake in some herbal substance and when i did this particular class, i felt this incredible feeling of peace, freedom and calm, but without the need to eat a pack of tim tams - come to think of it, they didn't have tim tams back then, only saos and that was a fun game to play..  it instantly bought me to a place of clarity whereby i could see that many of the negative things i was radiating needed to be stopped. this was a moment of transformation and i believe it came from being in the right place at the right time and that was a gentle yoga class.

so i didn't do much yoga again till 2002 (but i never forgot that moment) and in between that time, yoga started to slowly become a movement.  my first husband (yes i have had 2) became an ashtanga yoga teacher and had a studio in west end.  looking back, he seemed to embrace what yoga was about - making it available to people, even if people couldn't afford it.  Madonna was on the ashtanga bus and i decided to jump on board as well. i remember him saying that ashtanga was brutal - i didn't find it brutal, i found it invigorating, and life and body changing and very addictive.  I would practice 6 days as week.  Loved it.  At the end of 2002, i moved to Canberra and there as no ashtanga there. there was barely any yoga and i stopped practicing. but between there and now, the desire for yoga was never lost, just the ability to find a class that would give me what i knew and loved. sadly, that hasn't happened.

what i do try to do though is stretch and if you are interested in trying some simple stretching, then this might be a good place to start. just note that at about the 5 minute mark, she doesn't do one of the stretches that she did previously - no critisicm, but you want balance, so just go at your own pace and add it in and maybe at the end, just lie back for a few breaths and be in the moment.  i still do this practice and each time, it is so obvious to see the change in body as i move through the short practice.
if you are already into some kind of simple yoga practice, then maybe take a look at the 5 Tibetans. this is also a quick effective practice and one that you may like to research before doing. i have found this to be a very interesting practice as soon after i started, i developed what i can only call a line of toxins being released from my body starting at the top of my neck and running in a line down my back.  never had anything like that before, it was hideous, but the timing seemed too coincidental. 
with yoga, you have nothing to lose - except to release a lot of set mindsets and tightness. this is a way to be become fluid and flowing without needing to devour a pack of double choc tim tams.

note to self: remember that yoga not only relaxes and strengthens the body, it does the same with the mind and may be just the prescription to bring life into balance. it's a decision and one that will offer so many benefits to achieving a more peaceful life. if our muscles really do hold memory, then this will hands down, help to release the one that have to go. take it easy, be gentle and be kind, to you and those around.

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