The great yoga adventure

[Ant7]

Hi @CheerBear I hope your yoga practice is lovely and relaxing

[Phoenix_Rising]

@Former-Member Giggle, I can see how if you only read the first few pages of the thread, you might think we were going to spend the entire semester figuring out what to wear. But no, we are up to episode three. As an aside, when I went the first week, I told the instructor that figuring out what to wear had been a barrier for a while and she smiled knowingly - apparently this is VERY common.

@soul I SUPER love the picture of the ducks. I am wearing my duck socks everywhere now - good thing I bought six pairs. I am still super hoping you are going to join the great yoga adventure soon. It will be a very exciting episode when you join this geat adventure.

@CheerBear I hope episode three went well for you. I actually forgot that you had shifted to a daytime class. I definitely had it in my head to check in here prior to episode three...and then I saw you post a few hours ago and I remembered that you were going to the daytime class - dolt! I am a little jealous that you went into episode three feeling eleventy billion times better than last week. It takes me a looooooong time to feel comfortable anywhere. I'm feeling just as anxious today as last week...but not as anxious as the week before.

Did you get around to reading the chapter on yoga in TBKTS? I read it weeks ago, but haven't got around to posting my thoughts about it yet. I really must do that! Sadly, it seems that we have to go to a few more than three classes to fix our brains. Oh well, at least we've made a start.

[CheerBear]

Thanks @soul and @Ant7 🙂

I really enjoyed class today. I felt instantly calm lying down at the start of class waiting for it to begin, and doing that sometimes annoying and irritating 'allowing yourself to arrive mentally and physically' and 'be in the present moment' stuff. It was actually really calming and way easier to feel ok with than it's been in the past. After only a few visits to the centre, just the smell of the place had me feeling good about being there.

Today we used the chair quite a lot and did lots of stretching, feeling, noticing stuff. We spent a bit of time in 'tree' pose which I loved. I felt focused, strong and tall in it and might add 'stand like a tree' to my box of coping skills for when things get hectic 😄

I got to practice feeling my feet on the ground (which a good chunk of the start of class is spent doing) immediately after leaving class. I left feeling very chill but when I turned on my phone I found a voicemail message that instantly jolted me out of my chill zone and back in to the reality that the current season of my life is one of never ending curveballs and challenges. I said to myself 'feet on ground, feet on ground' trying to stop my head from flying away into freak out land. It helped a bit. I can see the value in dedicated practice so I signed up for the whole term today and will keep making yoga a priority for the coming weeks.

@Phoenix_Rising - while I was typing this I got your message. I find things really really tricky to start, but can settle in somewhere quite quickly once the scary firsts are checked off. A little less anxious than two weeks ago is getting there and maybe next week you'll feel a little less anxious than today. I didn't get around to reading the chapter. I planned on opening my book last night but fell asleep really early (8:30 ish) and have been busy all day today. I'll get there though, just like we'll get there fixing our brains with time. It would be kind of awesome if three yoga classes could fix decades of muddles hey? Imagine how expensive yoga would be if that was the case though?! Hope your class is good and looking forward to your report 🙂

[Phoenix_Rising]

@CheerBear Awwwww now I'm feeling more jealous of how quickly you can settle into a new thing. Hee hee, the competitive part of me is going "hey, @CheerBear is doing this getting-into-yoga thing better than me. I can do that. I can be "more calmer" than @CheerBear. I'm going to be the best at being calm." Nope, none of that everybody's-journey-is-different, don't-compare-yourself-to-others crap really important stuff for me.

I'm super glad you were able to remember to keep your feet on the ground when you got hit by a curve-ball right after yoga. That is very cool. It might take more than three lessons to fix a whole brain, but it sounds like you have grown some brand new tinsy tiny little brain connections. Standing like a tree sounds like a super thing to add to your toolkit. Maybe you could teach the LF to be trees too - then you could all be a forest together sometimes.

Anyway, I will report in this evening. I will work at not getting stressed about trying to be the best at being calm in class.

[Ant7]

Hi @Phoenix_Rising how are you going.

[Phoenix_Rising]

Hi everybody,

I survived episode three - yay for me!!!!! I felt super anxious and uncomfortable at the start, but once we got moving I got really into it and I felt MUCH calmer by the end of the class. And GUESS WHAT??? I was a tree too @CheerBear!!!! I almost started giggling when the instructor said we were going to do tree pose because I thought it was so cool that you and I got to be trees on the same day.

I super think we should set the goal of being a tree at least once every day for the next week @CheerBear, what do you think? When I was driving home, I was thinking about how many other people we might be able to encourage to be trees this week too. If we can get lots of people, we could then be the forest of Forum Land.

So...who can I find to encourage to be a tree... @Ant7 @soul @Former-Member @Former-Member @Former-Member @Former-Member @NikNik @Former-Member @Former-Member @TheVorticon @Zoe7  @Faith-and-Hope @Former-Member @BlueBay @Former-Member @Maggie @mudsum

I know, I know, some of you will be saying you have no idea how to be a tree. I can help with that:

https://www.doyogawithme.com/content/tree-pose

Ok, well I have no idea whether anyone else will want to be a tree, but I am going to be one for a few minutes every day for a week and I'd love to think I was being a part of the forest of Forum Land.

[Zoe7]

@Phoenix_Rising @CheerBear

[Ant7]

I will be a tree with you @Phoenix_Rising 😊🌴

[CheerBear]

Haha yessssss @Phoenix_Rising! That is so cool that we were trees together but not today! I had my ducks on the whole time today, did you too?

I did teach the LF to be trees too this evening. We all stood in the lounge room and made a forest. They thought it was very funny! I will definitely add being a tree into my daily plans this week. Are you stronger on one leg? I'm a very wobbly left legged tree but can stand tall for ages on my right leg.

Woohoo! So great to hear about a succesful episode three for you and that you were calmer at the end of the class!

@Zoe7 - I love that picture 🙂

[Faith-and-Hope]

🤸‍♂️🌱 ..... how am I doing ??

@Phoenix_Rising