a favorite quote

photo credits:  my sweet sister, jessica jenkins

“Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

this is one of my favorite quotes, although I have many.  It related so well to Ali’s last post that I felt compelled to share it.  With regards to yoga, I say, if you’ve never gone, GO!  If you’re stuck in one studio, try another.  Got a favorite class?  Skip it and try hip hop or black light or Intermediate Fun Flow!  You only live once, and nothing is as scary as it first seems.

-J

Regret

Day 7: Black Light Yoga w/Goldie- 7:30- 9p.m.- Back Bay Yoga

Tonight I was torn. I went to work and definitely didn’t feel 100%, but was not bedridden like I had been the past two days. When I even mentioned the idea of going to yoga to my roommate, she immediately freaked out saying what a stupid decision it would be to go, and how it was rude to spread my germs during the holidays. I assured her that the doctor promised me that once my fever was gone I was no longer contagious. If I could still spread my germs there was no way I would have been at work or yoga. After a long internal debate, I walked to CVS, bought myself two vitamin waters and a water, and headed to yoga. I had signed up for black light yoga, a class I had never tried, but had been dying to experience. The class was in the different room then normal, and I was forced to deviate from my regular hip hop yoga routine. Once settled on my mat, I couldn’t wait for class to start. Let me say, this class was…AMAZING. Honestly, explaining it won’t do it any justice, you just have to go. The only way I can sort of think to describe it is, doing yoga, at a concert, in the summer, under the stars. In Goldie’s words the style of yoga was,  “sexy…slower yoga with a flow…transient music.” I wouldn’t call the music hip hop, I wouldn’t call it dubstep, I wouldn’t call it electronic. In Goldie’s words again, it was just “POWERFUL STUFF”.

When the class ended I took a second to think about how I felt. I felt great. Sure, I still felt sick and tired, but I felt like I had done so much good to my body in that 90 minutes. I twisted, I stretched, I did tons of hip openers and inversions. It was just what I needed. The one thing I didn’t feel was regret. This got me thinking, I can never think of time when I have done something in terms of exercise or yoga where I have felt regret. I often times question whether I want to go on a run, go to the gym, go to yoga, but the only time I feel regret is when I choose NOT to do these things. Had I not attended class tonight I know I would have felt regret.

As I stated in an earlier post, I have been having trouble lately fully relaxing in Shavasana. Instead of using these few minutes to fully relax, I’ve been using these few minutes of silence to make lists, think of what I have to do next, etc. I wanted to share a technique that Goldie has been using during Shavasana in her classes over the past few weeks that has helped me overcome this. Picture a circle and divide it in half horizontally. Now pick a color for the top half and a color for the bottom half. With your inhale trace the top half of the circle in your mind with the first color, and with your exhale trace the bottom half of circle with the other color. Continue doing this throughout Shavasana. Eventually your inhale will with match your exhale and you may not even have to picture the circle anymore.

Moral of today’s class: Sometimes regret can be worse than any other feeling you may have.

-A

 “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable”

Sydney J. Harris