Pick Your Battles

 

Day 11: Vinyasa flow w/Jene Rossi-9-10:30 Prana Power Yoga Newton

The only thing better than a good yoga class is a good yoga teacher. I truly, 100%, believe this. In my opinion, you can go to class at the greatest studio ever, with an amazing sequence, but if the teacher isn’t someone you feel like you can relate to or connect with, the class is ruined. You get hung up on their voice, their comments, their mannerisms, and it becomes impossible to fully engage yourself in the practice. Jene is a GREAT teacher. I have been practicing yoga since high school, and Jene was one of my first yoga teachers. I’ve never forgotten the positive energy she emits during class. When I saw she was subbing at Prana for the 9 a.m. class I knew I had to go. I didn’t care if I had to stay in on a Saturday night to make it to class feeling energized and refreshed, I just knew I had to be on my mat, at Prana, at 9 a.m., on Sunday morning.

When class started I was worried. Less than 24 hours prior I had been pruning up in Masaaki’s class, and here Jen and I were, again, sweating our brains out, for another 90 minutes. I didn’t know if it was dehydration, the freshly lacquered floors of the studio, or both, but 60 minutes into class I literally thought I was going to puke. It was a weird feeling though because I wasn’t yearning for class to end, or considering walking out, rather I was angry I felt this way. The sequence was the perfect mix of predictability and individuality, the heat was my ideal temperature, and the energy was spot on. I think I was just physically exhausted, and the feeling was manifesting itself today. Right when I thought I might have to spend the rest of the class in child’s pose, Jene stopped class to ask us if we wanted to go to the wall. “YES!” was my response. Often times I get frustrated when a class is paused to practice head stand or handstand at the wall. It can feel abrupt, especially if you are super into the flow and have a good vibe going. This pause fit in perfectly, and I think everyone was craving a few minutes to play around with some fun poses that are not regularly worked into every class.

At the end of the class, Jene spoke about being non-reactive. Her example was something so insignificant; the action of wiping a bead of sweat from our eyes as we lay in Shavasana instead of letting it drip down our faces.  This got me thinking. We tend to be a reactive culture. No matter what the situation, we do something about everything. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is definitely a trait that can be exhausting. Before Jene started talking about letting a bead of sweat just drip, I had been reaching for my towel to wipe the sweat from my face. My own natural reactivity was disruptive to my own calm. Why was I unable to just drift into Shavasana without wiping this sweat from my face? It’s not like these beads of sweat were causing me any sort of pain or discomfort. There are so many day-to-day instances where I could save tremendous amounts of energy by choosing not to react. It is tiring to fight every fight. It is so much more practical for us to pick our battles and only exert energy reacting to things worthy of a reaction.

Moral of today’s class:

1. Come to Boston and go to one of Jene’s classes!!

2. If you pick your battles you will have so much more energy for the important things 🙂

-A

“Choose your battles wisely. After all, life isn’t measured by how many times you stood up to fight.It’s not winning battles that makes you happy, but it’s how many times you turned away and chose to look into a better direction. Life is too short to spend it on warring. Fight only the most, most, most important ones, let the rest go.”

-C. Joybell C

Finding Joy

Day 4: 4:30-5:30 p.m. Prana 2 Music w/Kate Harrington- Prana Newton

Today I woke up with a high fever, an awful headache, no voice, and was basically coughing up a lung. Below was my first conversation of the day with Jen:

 

There was just no way I could go to class today, but I was having a really hard time with this realization. I was ok with not going yesterday because that was planned, but this wasn’t. I am a firm believer in practicing what you preach, and I know I talked in an earlier post about being still, but today I was conflicted with my own advice. Maybe I would just practice on my own? Ugh no, a solo practice was just not going to do it today. After a lot of advil and lying in bed, I was feeling a little better. I know it probably wasn’t the smartest decision, but with Jen’s support and agreement to go with me, I decided I was going to go to the 4:30-5:30 “prana 2 music” class with Kate Harrington at Prana. Maybe I would get there and have to spend the entire hour in child’s pose, or maybe I would just have to go at a slower pace then the rest of the class. I really wasn’t sure. When I got to class and surprisingly found out I had one class left on my pass I knew I had made the right decision. No idea where this extra class came from, but I definitely wasn’t gonna complain about it!

Class was awesome. Honestly, it just what I needed. The music softly playing in the background was a perfect blend of inspiration and relaxation, and the unique sequence kept me guessing the entire class. I am also now a big fan of Kate. I have never taken a class with her before, but her genuinely humble attitude and hands on teaching approach was refreshing. She was just as grateful to us for practicing with her as we were to her. During one pose, revolving half moon, Kate came over to me to make an adjustment. I was feeling a little light headed at this point, and my lifted leg was definitely not as high as it could be. I think Kate could sense that this was not due to laziness, but actual exhaustion, and rather than just tell me to lift my leg higher, she came over, lifted it for me, and held it for the entire five breaths. As she was helping me, she asked the class to “find joy in this pose.” Finding joy is something we sometimes fail to do. Although I don’t believe you can find joy in everything (Friday’s tragedy is one example), there are often times where we forget to look for joy. I was totally not feeling joyful in revolving half moon at first, but after taking literally one second to reroute my energy, I forgot about the struggle I was having with it, and was able to find joy in my breathing, in the music, in Kate’s help.

Another thing that I kept noticing in class is how many times Kate said the word still. I am not sure if this was a coincidence or just one of those things that you only start to notice because it is on your mind. Like when you get a new car and all of sudden see the same kind of car all the time when you are driving. Anyways, I actually laughed to myself whenever she said this. It was sort of like an inadvertent “I told you so.” Still is still something I need to keep working at.

Moral of today’s class: I still need to work on still. Find joy in your pose.

-A

 “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”

-Rumi

(I rolled out my mat and this was what was on the floor in front of me)