Day 6: 6.15am class = Commitment

What I am committed to is undecided. I did a Vinyasa Power Flow class this morning at 6.15am before work. Not because I love getting up early but because I have plans to go out tonight, I don't want to miss out on a fun night just for yoga, so I drag my sorry ass out of bed at 5.55am. I think this means my commitment lies in drinking and nothing will keep me from the sweet elixir.

So I noticed it a little in last night's Yin class but it was blatantly obvious to me in this mornings class. I have hit a wall. I think my muscles are fatigued cause I feel like I am struggling with the poses more than I have been before. I feel weak and stiff. We did alot of balancing poses this morning and I was all over the shop. Maybe the classes before we're easier and I didn't notice how shit I am? Who knows. But you would think I would feel stronger and looser, no. Not the case. As I did todays class at 6.15am, I won't do my next class till late tomorrow night. This might give my body a little break. We'll see if that does the trick.

In the meantime I will go out tonight and have fun with my favourite saffa and her crew. I may do a bit of savasana when I get home.

It's me on the left silly!

Day 5: Namastiness

I have actually done yoga quite a few times before this little stint but this time I feel like I am really doing yoga. All I can put it down to is, when you are feeling quite low you really recognise the things that make you feel good and the difference they make within is quite large cause when low, there is lots of potential for a myriad of feelings that are a million time better than where you are.

My friend Rachel wrote me an email and used the word namastiness, she was talking about namaste and feeling my namastiness but to me namastiness sounded like nastiness and I like the mix of words. I do have lots of bad feelings inside at the moment and one of them is nastiness for sure. Ben has sent me a couple of text messages that have been a bit bizarro, the last one ended with "Happy new beginnings Perko!"  Which clearly indicates that he has just opened a bottle of champagne and is blissfully celebrating our breakup just like it is new years fucking eve. This sort of of stuff makes me feel like shit and I bipolar disorder from feeling hurt, sad, angry and murderous at any given moment. Anyway, there is a yoga point to all of this. One thing yoga has been good for is practising turning all of the "nastiness" I feel into a bit of "namaste". You learn how to breathe through a challenging pose just like you learn to breathe through any bad feelings that enter into your body and mind. And trust me, bad feelings enter through your body, you feel it in your guts, your throat and/or your chest. You learn to feel it coming in and learn to try to let it back out again. There is no room for any nastiness in my body, it's poison. I don't have to like Ben's text message but I also don't want it to eat me up inside. It's just me now and I am all I should be concerned with. It's not easy to do but it really does make you feel better.

I did Yin yoga tonight, it was at 8.30pm and it's the relaxing one where you hold simple stretches but for long periods of time. It was an excellent type of yoga for what I needed today, no more namastiness here.... for now.

So can I yoga cat, so can I.

Day 4: I can't even remember what I did in yoga tonight.

Tonights Hatha class was pretty relaxing. It was the most chilled out Hatha class I have done and it was kinda welcome today. I can't even remember what moves we did or anything that stood out in the class. this could be because afterwards I got a massage and I am so relaxed from the relaxing yoga and the relaxing massage that the brain has stopped working and I just want to go to bed now please.

I keep finding these pics of yoga dogs and they make me laugh, I think I might be turning into one of those cat/dog blog people.

How could you not love this lil fella though:

You know what comes after this pose don't you? That's right. Downward dog.

Day: 3. Lengthen the spine-ah

Let it be said that I have NEVER done any exercise consecutively 3 days in a row. I have already hit a personal best! Yay for me!

Hatha today. I like that no 2 hatha classes are really the same. Depends on the teacher and where they decide to focus on that particular day. Todays teacher wore jeans to class (wtf!) as she said she couldn't be bothered to change into yoga pants. Totally weird. And she spoke at the start of the class and her voice was all normal but when she got into the class her voice started to change and went from being normal to dramatic and deep and she would end her words with an extended ah! not aaaah but more like ah! So instead of saying breathe she would say breathe - ah!  Lengthen the spine - ah! It got kinda humorous to me and I wonder if anyone else noticed it. But her crazy speech was forgiven cause her class was really challenging, lots of core work and hip stretching. Hip stretching! Hallelujiah! I didn't even know my hips were tense but holy jesus they felt good to be stretched out. And the plank. The plank kills me. If I can comfortably do a plank by the end of the 40 days I shall buy myself a pony.  I can do them now but I have to put my knees down in the middle and I feel like I may die of a burst aneurysm during it.

On my walk home I went and had a look at the view across the street from my new apartment. It was a nice chilly Vancouver afternoon. A nice view to end my yoga session before heading in for the night.

Day 2: Ouch my knee

Today I did a hatha class which I really enjoyed. One thing that is a bit of a pain in the ass though is my sore knee. I completely stacked it while carrying my bed into the new place. Fell off the side of the path to the front door, dropped the bed into the bushes and scraped my knee against the concrete. It got bloody and bruised and I cannot put any pressure on it. So it's makes a few poses in hatha impossible. I hope it heals quick.

My body was a bit tender from the yoga yesterday, mainly in the back of my legs and arms (damn kundalini arm waving) so all the stretching poses actually felt really good, and afterwards I felt jolly and nimble. I was running late to get to the class and I rushed there so I also really enjoyed the relaxing breathing poses to get me to feel centred again. It's funny, the "savasana" the last pose you do in yoga, which is basically lying flat while they put soothing music on, was a pose that used to make me anxious. I didn't like sitting still like that. It felt un-natural and forced. But now I love it. It's kinda weird and I could easily do that at home  (I don't), but in that environment after the whole class it's a great way to end and I really feel myself feeling light and relaxed.

This is what Savasana looks like. This lil doggie is lovin it!

Day 1: It's not very namaste to hate the instructors.

The move out of the apartment was horrible and am really glad it's over. I literally left our apartment for the last time after moving all day and went straight to the first yoga class. To kick off the challenge there was a special class for people embarking on the 40 days. It was a class that included all 4 types of yoga offered at the studio, yin, hatha, vinyasa & kundalini and instructed by 4 different people. So here is my rundown:

Yin: is the relaxing yoga, deep stretches held for longer periods. Nice. I've been to Yin a few times before and I quite like the style. The classes I've been to are usually the last ones held at night and they dim the lights. I have slept like a baby after these classes.

Hatha: is more posey, doing the typical yoga moves but in a relaxing way that concentrates on making sure your posture is correct and you hold your pose with strength and precision.

These two types of yoga were no surprise in todays class. I have never done the other types of yoga before and quite frankly they were a little bit whack.

Vinyasa: To start off the the instructor annoyed the hell out of me. She was like an american game show host who tried to shove her namaste down your throat in her tone of voice and dramatic way she expressed the poses. If you can imagine a cheerleader instructing yoga, that's what it would be like. I didn't mind the vinyasa style per se, a more active version of hatha but I shall experiment with another instructor before I make any final judgement thanks.

Kundalini: well, fucking hell, this shit was ridiculous. The instructor was so tanned she seriously looked like a burns victim and I really try to love all people and their choices in life but I just don't know why you would fry your skin like that, I lose respect for you, you tell me to make a commitment to myself and my physical, mental and emotional health and you are a fried chicken wing? Lady please. And I haven't even started on the yoga yet. It basically involved some movements where you squatted then stood and screamed some crazy language, another movement reminiscent of the New Zealand haka (bro) and then about 15 minutes of dance music straight from DCM circa 1996 where she instructed crazy jumping, dancing and hand waving. I got into it, cause there really was no choice but seriously, I can already tell kundalini is not my thing, I thought I was going to tear a ligament in my arm with so much hand waving. And this was just for 20 minutes. Imagine a class that goes for an hour!

I did feel good afterwards though. Before the class my spine felt a little pinched from carrying things in the move but afterwards it felt good.

40 Days of Yoga. Holy Sh*t!

I read a quote today that resonated a bit with me.

It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. Wendell Berry.

In this stage of my life I would have imagined that I would be thinking of things like this.

Babies and a committed relationship. Big meringue wedding dress NOT!

But instead I am currently trying to recover from the most painful breakup of my life thus far and wondering where the hell I am. It has really hit me like a cricket bat to the face, I put alot of blind faith into our relationship and never really imagined that it would end like this.  

I have been hitting a few yoga classes and I have found they make me feel centred, relaxed and they help me sleep better, which is troublesome for me at the moment. So when I saw the ad for The 40 Day Yoga Challenge, a very Vancouver thing to do, which starts the day I move out of our apartment, I thought it was a bit of a sign for me. The ad said: 

Yogic science confirms that it takes 40 days to fully develop a new life-promoting habit or to drop a current destructive habit. The Semperviva Challenge is a great way to strengthen the body, unburden the mind, and begin a daily commitment to yourself.

In 40 days, you can create a whole new way of being.

It was clearly speaking directly to me. And what the hell else do I have to do? I would like to create a whole new way of being cause I certainly don't like where I'm at right now. Being sad sucks balls.

I hope to achieve some abs, an unburdened mind and get happy god dammit.

My good friend Amanda D requested that I blog my way through the 40 days of yoga just so she had something fun to read on her new iPad. She has been a good friend to me so I have decided that I will do just that. So hastamananabanana is back. 

So I start tomorrow. And I shall try and blog every day.

Namaste. I'm kidding. God I feel like a wanker when I say that.