I had spent 4 decades of my life, managing to bunk or get away without ever doing the compulsory handstand in school and almost all other sports sessions. I had never ever set foot inside a gym. My only exposure to staying fit was regular walks or a swim or some yoga classes, all of which was “regular” for nothing more than a few weeks! It resulted in me hesitating to join a group class as I was too embarrassed at my own lack of flexibility. After mulling over it for long, and constantly hearing my neighbours praise this fabulous yoga teacher, I I finally decided to join Ruchi’s class.
So, did it help? I still can’t touch my toes without bending my knees!😌 So, what have I gained?
I learnt to let my body guide me, I learnt to let go & be alright if I was taking and still continue to take much longer with some asanas. In the beginning, I used to cringe when we reached the Chaturanga asana. Actually, it was not even Chaturanga for me, I couldn’t manage just knees, chin, chest! But, with small changes that Ruchi would suggest like “your gaze should be ahead, not down”, I learnt to get comfortable with it and most importantly accept my own pace. Letting go & allowing my body to guide me led to letting go of so many other things, thus creating this sea change in the mind!
Even now, there are so many asanas where I need improvement. That’s another thing I learnt – it’s not about making mistakes, it’s about needing improvement. But, no matter what, at the end at the end of each class, I feel really fabulous!
There are days when one feels really stressed about work that’s on-going or nervous about an important session coming up that day. My only way to cope with that is that no matter what, I can’t afford to miss my yoga class. And so the recent Facebook post by City Yogini is the mantra I follow.
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Not surprising that as I began to write down my list of things to be grateful for during this lock down, this yoga class found 3 slots on my long list. I am grateful to my teacher for doing this on-line, grateful that we are blessed with access to technology that enabled this and above all grateful that my better half who now saves on travel time to work can now finally join me on this wonderful yoga journey!
Such beautiful words Aditi !! Thank you so much for sharing. We are all in different stages of our Journeys. It inspires to read the experiences of those who are ahead (whatever ahead means to each of us) but there is inspiration and gratitude reading the struggles of practitioners who start out face the hurdles accept the challenges and don't give up.