Week #6

       I talked about this theme in a previous post; the healing of yoga. I, personally,  feel some type of way about the healing of yoga because of the medical issues that I have. I have been practicing every morning the sequences that Annie has taught us. I have been noticing not only a difference in my digestion, but my stress levels have definitely decreased. I feel more at ease when handling situations, that I would normally overreact to. I have been practicing these rituals in my weekly yoga classes. I try to alternate between a physical and spiritual yoga session each week. 
      We have talked about things like this in class. I overhead you say that you have not been to the doctors in years! I am not sure if I believe in "yoga as medicine" as a whole. I think there is a reason that the human population has evolved to live a longer life, and that reason is doctors and the medical practice. However, I think yoga definitely helps! I feel great after yoga. Whether my mind is at ease or my muscles feel warm and stretched. I believe that yoga is really beginning to help me as a whole.  

Week #5

        Rituals hold a strong sense for yoga sessions. We discussed this in class. Rituals can start as soon as you set out on your journey to your yoga class, when you take off your shoes for yoga class, or when you get into your first position. This can change for everyone. I believe that my ritual starts as soon as I get into my first pose. Before them I am extremely anxious and my mind is running about one million different things. As soon as our instructor gets us going into our first pose, I immediately leave everything else behind.
       My yoga class has become more of a community to me; which is perfect that we mentioned it that way. I began to recognize more faces from previous sessions. Before, I would have politely smiled and continued with my session. Now, I feel a sense of comfort with my yoga community. Although we all may not know each other, we are all there for the same thing, to better ourselves. Our instructor guides us to keep a remarkable breathing rhythm. At the end of each session, I can feel us all growing together as one. It is of a great feeling to be apart of this community.  

Week #4

       This week I used Annie's class practice as my yoga session. She taught us Iyengar. This is a form of Hatha yoga. It focuses on detail, alignment, and precision. Annie even mentioned to us in the beginning of class when she was doing her introduction, that she would correct us if we were off. She spent a lot of time carefully going over each pose and exactly how to get into it. She also focused on exactly how to get out of it. We only spent about forty seconds in each pose. However, in a regular class it would be a few minutes. A regular class is also two hours or more. We were told that Iyengar recommends staying in the pose for about five to ten minutes to get the full affect.
        This was a very, very slow moving class. A lot different than our practice last week. Personally, I liked Bikram better. It was more fast paced and challenging. I really felt each pose making a physical difference. However, that is the difference! Iyengar was more of an eternal practice. Annie would recite what each pose helped us achieve for the inner body. I think I would really like to practice this daily. Annie is a student as well, so she was able to tell us, "hey, if you ever get stressed out like me from school, this is a great pose to do." I really appreciated that she also gave us a quick, little background of exactly how it helped us. She explained which muscles or organs were being reflected on in each pose.
       Many of the pose's we did aided digestion and stress. Although some people may not believe that they are related, they are! I was diagnosed with a forming ulcer in my stomach and have been in and out of doctors for years because of it. It is pretty simple what caused it- stress and anxiety. I think that performing these poses daily can really be beneficial for my health. I am excited to continue them. Annie gave us great tips on how to complete these at home, such as using the wall to complete a proper downward dog. So a big thank you to Annie, for teaching this class- she may be saving me a lot of money in the doctor offices :-)