Beautiful Practice

The very next day, AK and I returned to the studio for non-heated hot yoga. The door to the studio up the stairs was closed. I asked her what time it was because I was going to be perturbed if they began early. Turns out, they hadn't begun. Practically no one was there again. We scanned in--mine worked this time--and took our spot by the wall towards the back. The grunter was back and he settled in front of us, so we moved back a little.

This class began with a move I'd like to call Stick Your Fingers In Your Eyeballs and Push. That's not far from what we were doing. Basically, to get in tune with your chakras, you can close off all the holes in your head, hold your breath, and concentrate. If you do it right, you can see different colors flow around. Since I wear contacts, I was more concerned with not getting them stuck up in my eye sockets so I saw no such colors. AK saw a lovely green.

We had a solid hatha class. Right off the bat, I got my head all the way down to the mat in downdog. I guess that can happen if you do yoga two days in a row. She kept the window closed because no one complained about the temperature, so the poses were easier to get into. I was also sweating more than the day before, and every time the instructor adjusted me, I felt bad about it.

At one point, we moved from Warrior I to Warrior II and the instructor was right next to me and didn't have to adjust me. She said, nice, good, and walked away. I was thinking, yup finally I got it. A few seconds later, she was pushing the pinkie side of my back foot to the mat. Dangit.

She helped me in a lot of the poses, just to get deeper. She told me where to tighten up. She does so very quietly, barely touching where I needed to work. It was a great class.

Towards the end, we were doing some binding postures. We were standing with our legs a bit wider than hip distance apart. Bend the left knee. Take the left arm between the legs and swoop it up. Take the right arm around the back. Bind the hands together. Keep the right knee straight. This? Was not fun. I was able to do it, but not to the fullest extent. I don't know why but I have flexible shoulders. They aren't flexible to the point where my hands can go over my head from behind, but they're good enough to get me into some great binds.

After doing each side, the instructor was like, now take your hands around your legs and pull your head through. Seriously. It was towards the end, so once again, I'm doggin it. I hear her come over and tell me what to do. I closed my eyes and started breathing loudly, hoping she'd think I was in the zone.

I should have never opened my eyes because when I did, there she was, her butt up in the air facing my butt so that her head was upside down, between her legs, looking at me. She instructed me from this position to get me to push my head further between my legs. I didn't feel as if I was doing anything different, but she ended with a yes, that's it, you went further. So there's that.

Savasana was heaven. So much so that I didn't know when class ended. Also, I couldn't hear the instructor once again, so I knew class was over only when I heard AK start moving around. We agreed it was a nice class. We gathered our things and as we headed out, we thanked the instructor. She said to me, beautiful practice, and I was like, awwwwwwwwww! in my head. Out loud, I said, thank you, and ran away, all embarrassed.

As we walked to the car, AK commented that the guy didn't seem to be grunting a lot. I was like, no, he kept that all for me yesterday. Because I'm lucky.