Oh, missing Mysore, or not?
New Year, new resolve.. I have been practicing yoga for around 10 years. I started fairly late in life, in my early 40's, with a weekly class of Iyengar yoga, and within a month or so, I had a photocopied page of asanas that I began to practice most evenings.
At the start of this journey I am going to tell you why I took up yoga.. I had a hankering for what I thought might be a long term physical exercise, something that was not too 'pushy' as I had encountered in the gym world. So, having chatted to some slender women, I took the leap and found my first local class.
The teacher? Ann Chinn, a lovely gentle woman who taught at the Brighton Natural Health Centre, and she taught the Iyengar method. My first class? Well, I think I could just about reach my knees in a forward bend, having spent years lifting furniture and pushing weights in the gym... I was, well, inflexible...
In the class were about 20 women, and 2 men, one of whom had done yoga previously, and one who had not... Me. I found the class sedate and slow, and not really challenging, except for one or two upside down positions... yes inversions...
The Iynegar method seemed to based upon the adaption of the minutiae of the positioning of the hands and feet, almost to an obsessional point. Getting the fingers in line and level, getting the heel and instep aligned on the mat, and having my head looking in the right direction.
Simple, this was not exercise.. Is it?
Well, that is how it seemed, a stroll though the park. But, after the class I felt gratified that I had bothered to try and shrugged it off as a waste of my time... Until the next day...
Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME
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