Yoga Release or Why Jessi and I are Still Friends

I went to a yoga class this week. In the past 6 years I have gone to the following yoga classes: Pre-natal yoga, Post-natal yoga and Belly After Baby. No me by myself on a mat yoga classes. Yoga was my first fitness passion. I started practicing in 2002 and I love the feeling I have when I leave a yoga class-A gentle smile on my face and a feeling of relaxation in my muscles.....ahhh. So grateful I found yoga. Then I became pregnant with my first child, Zoey and attended pre-natal, and then post-natal. And then I stopped. I found Zumba and was desperate to take off the "baby weight" so I spent all of my free-time participating in burning the most calories in a short period of time. Yoga is tricky because of how incredibly difficult it is to be mindful when you have one million things you should be doing, including burning more calories, parenting your children, cleaning the house, during that hour. So I stopped until I got pregnant with my second child. I again fell in love with pre-natal, but I couldn't even muster the energy and mental power to do post-natal after having Emmet.

About a year ago, I begin to feel overwhelmed and stressed out about my job, my ability to parent, life in general and I began to realize that I need yoga in my life. I realized that the mindfulness that I didn't think possible when you have one million things you should be doing, including burning more calories is actually essential in order to stay present and be a better parent and not lose my mind at work. I began telling people that I needed to find a yoga class, but never actually went to a class. Finally, about 2 weeks ago a friend suggested that I meet her for a class on a Tuesday and I agreed!

As I was leaving my house I grabbed my neglected yoga mat and headed toward the door. I couldn't wait to get my namaste on! I almost had the urge to pop on the Deepak Chopra channel on Pandora, but I resisted. I thought about how beneficial yoga is for so many people. My mother has been practicing yoga for many years and became a Yoga Instructor about 5 years ago. I'm so proud of her and so impressed with how youthful and healthy she is. I certainly hope that I can maintain my health and movement as I age.

The great thing about yoga is that you know the atmosphere you are walking into. I mean, the purpose of yoga is to establish "peace of mind in order to experience one's true self" so when I walked in and announced it was my first time there, the teacher looked at me with her warm smile and said, "welcome." I'm not going to lie, I felt warm and cuddly and like I belonged there. My friend and I entered the main studio and set up our mats on the beautiful bamboo floor facing "the lotus wall." This was hot yoga so the temperature was raised. There were about 7 people in the room. One man, 2-3 middle aged woman, a 20 something budding yoga teacher and my friend and I, who I refuse to believe are middle aged yet. Many of the participants were getting their "pre-stretch" on, which is always so funny to me because aren't we there to get a little loose? It's like cleaning your house before the house cleaner comes- WTH? I have never had a house cleaner before, but I'd like to think that I would let the person do their job and clean my house. I'm not going to one-up them by "pre-cleaning". That's what they are there for.

The yoga teacher, who was previously seated behind a desk, walks into the studio and as she crosses to the studio to grab her Tingshaw bell I am able to admire her leggings which sport a bamboo motif with an entire thigh-sized panda bear on each leg. You friggen go girl!! I mean, those bad boys aren't for me, but I love that you are rocking them! Once the bell chimes and we are all standing in Fierce Pose facing the Lotus Wall I am in the yoga zone and ain't nothing gonna stop me. Panda girl asks us to set an intention for our practice and to offer that intention to the universe and I immediately ask the universe for release! Release from the tension I've been feeling in work, as a parent. With the universes blessing of release I think that will allow those teeny tiny embryos to nestle right into my ute!


As we progress to our Downward Dog sequence, I hear the token male yogi and his SUPER deep breathing, which sounds like he is actually more gasping or maybe he is a real live humidifier emitting steam in forceful uneven breaths. "That guy" goes to basically every single yoga class I've ever been to. I love a good Ujjayi breath as much as the next girl but, for serious?

I'm totally digging this yoga practice. I'm impressed with my strength, even though I haven't been to a class in years and my breathing is reasonably ocean like.....We settle into the mat on our stomach to get into some back strengthening poses. We are face down on the mat with our arms under our bodies and our palms on the floor under our hips so our pinkies touch each other. It's just as uncomfortable as it sounds. We are preparing to extend into locust pose:

The room is completely silent as everyone is working on raising their legs to a reasonable height without completely throwing their back out, when out of nowhere, the young 20 something girl lets out the loudest public fart I've ever heard! I buried my face into my mat reciting to myself that I should not under any circumstances make eye contact with my friend while I silently chortle to myself, trying all the while to keep my body still so Panda Girl would think I was mature enough to continue to attend class. Holy Mahatma-I'm seriously still legitimately LOL'ing right now.

I somehow managed to compose myself to complete the class after thinking, Oh geez, that was some release! I guess it does take continued practice to really let it go! I'll be back next week for sure! And, I certainly will continue to chuckle my way through the week. Laughing is good for the soul and I'm sure, it's helpful in the implantation of these embryos! My friend and I were not able to discuss this class disruption until the next day, but we are both still laughing about it. It wasn't Jessi with me in that class, but it just as easily could have been. I truly appreciate the kind of friend who will stick by you when things are tough, listen to you and encourage you when you are feeling like a failure, and laugh with you when someone farts in yoga class. Those are the friends that you keep forever.