Ooooooommmmmmm

I needed to move my body and also relax after a week of rushing around with intense nerves. I got up early and went to a yoga class in the Strip District. It was in an old warehouse building that was really decorated snazzily, and you access the studio through one of those glass elevators that lets you look down on basically the whole city.

I've been doing yoga on and off (mostly off) for almost ten years, but have never taken a class that was quite so hard. It was called Intro to Ashtanga Yoga. It was insane. I loved it. There were only seven people in the class, including two pregnant ladies and a pair of men, one of whom was a superstar. The other man kept looking over at me while the class formed their bodies into impossible postures. We sat in our "preparation poses" breathing through our noses and raising eyebrows at one another as if to say, "Maybe the word intro means something else to this crowd?"

The teacher didn't bat an eyelash, however, and was very hands on. And feet on. She went at a slow pace and explained everything patiently. Then, she used all her appendages to correct postures, including leaning her back against the wall and using her feet to push my "sit bones" into the right place. I guess she needed more leverage because my sit bones were a bit mightier than she anticipated.

Usually in yoga class, I have to force myself to focus, to calm down my thoughts which run a mile a second ordinarily. Today, I was so intently focused on being in the right place on the right breath, I forgot to worry about stuff. My mind forgot to wander and my body, apart from falling down or pinching its own fat pockets, began to shed its tension.

I want to go there every day, even if I never get my down dog right. I have never felt so light and airy. It makes me want to eat cupcakes.