Summary
I was once intimidated by yoga classes, relying on DVDs for the first decade of my vinyasa practice. It wasn’t until my 30s that I joined a yoga class, and everything changed. I took my first regular yoga classes at the gym (something I took for Lent one year) and I first experienced how we were united in breath and movement. This shared practice not only brought me closer to others in the room but began to reveal something deeper.
I used to be intimidated by yoga classes. For the first ten years-ish of my personal vinyasa practice, I relied on DVDs. I’ve often talked about Yoga for Dummies as my starting point, but I followed that up with a bunch of Gaia videos, specifically those of Rodney Yee. I felt an immediate connection to the practice, but I never considered joining a public class (maybe echos of childhood PE trauma?).
And I never thought of it as more than exercise.
I Don’t Know Why I Started
I think Yoga chose me.
I was in a store and saw that Yoga for Dummies DVD for sure, but why I picked it up, I’ll never know. My guess is that it looked like a “workout” I could do, having never really seriously exercised in my life, and the title made it feel accessible.
Something deeper was at play…
What it told me was:
‘Yoga is more than exercise.’
In hindsight, I know there was another hand guiding mine that day. Yoga had something to teach me, and this accessible “workout” approach is what got me to start paying attention. Ms. Ivanhoe (the teacher of that DVD) ended the 25-minute practice with “self-acceptance, in my opinion, is the highest practice of yoga.” (I wrote a whole blog post about it.)
That statement which closed her practice wasn’t about fitness. It wasn’t about abs. It wasn’t about breath or yoga poses or even meditation. What it told me was: “Yoga is about more than this.” Little did I know that I was joining something much greater than an exercise program.
Give Up. Take On.
I didn’t begin practicing yoga regularly until my early 30s. One year I decided that I’d attend a weekly Vinyasa class at my gym as a part of my Lenten devotional. (In the Christian season of Lent, people often give things up, but I sometimes choose to take on something new or intimidating. In my opinion, the spirit of devotion is what matters more than the act itself.)
At any rate, I was in consistent yoga classes for the first time in my life, and I suddenly got it. I was in a room full of people, most of whom were more advanced and flexible than I was, all of us breathing and moving together with a shared intentionality.
The teachers sometimes spoke about “spiritual stuff,” but most of the time, we just observed this time together away from distraction and deeply concentrated on our bodies as they moved through what I imagine were fairly beginner-level classes.
And we often ended by chanting “Om.”
Put the “Unity” in “Community”
Om is not something we initiate. It is something we join.
Like a drop of rain falling into a rushing river, the vibration is all around us all the time. It runs through us and is a part of all creation. When we chant it together, we step into that stream and bring it to the surface. We unite not just with each other in the room but with all beings everywhere. With everything and everyone that is or ever has been.
The word “Yoga” literally means “to yoke” or “to bind.” To bring into union our minds, bodies and spirits. To recognize that when we are in a state of Yoga, we are a part of something greater.
And, while I think I first thought about the theme of “community” having to do with taking yoga classes together, I realize now that the real community is that of all creation. That to which we owe our entire existence.
And I am honored to be a part of it.
Meditation Practice
Vinyasa Practice
Nothing that appears in this blog or on this website is intended to treat or diagnose any disorder, physical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before beginning any exercise program.