Awesome yoga day

It’s been a while since I wrote about yoga. I’m still practicing, but I lost the habit of having my camera with me all the time. I think a post without pictures is no fun. Yesterday, I had a fabulous day that was all about yoga. I didn’t think to bring my camera, but I had to write this post anyways, because it was such a great day!

I’ve had an annoying cold all week. You know, the kind that’s not enough to make you complain a lot (although I did). It just makes you tired and grumpy. It also made me sneeze like one of Snow White’s dwarves. I’m not kidding. Sneezes all the time.

For a few months now, I’ve been a “karma yogi” at my favourite studio, Pure Yoga. It’s an energy exchange program where you work for four hours a week and get free, unlimited yoga. Yay! I normally go on Tuesday nights, but this week, after an hour and a half, I went home because I was sick and sneezy. Yesterday, Saturday, I was subbing for another karma yogi, and, although I still felt a little under the weather, it was much better than Tuesday.

One of the great things about being a karma yogi is that you get to do a class during your shift, so really, you don’t work for four hours. I did a flow class. I wasn’t sure if I should, but Jen told me class would start with a long, supported fish pose. Bliss. I was in. I took a few breaks, including a pretty long child’s pose while everyone else was doing some kind of warrior two torture thing. I didn’t actually see what they were doing, since I was a happy little ball of “I’m not doing this”, but I could hear people lose their regular breath, gasp for air, then try to return to their steady breathing. Yeah, not sorry I missed that. Those breaks made class perfect for me. I’m happy I’ve gotten to the point where I no longer care what people think of me if I spend half a class in child’s pose. My yoga, my bliss.

Jen and I. Ok, it’s an old picutre. My hair is no longer than length or colour. But it’s still us!

Then, after my karma shift was over, I raced to another studio where I attended a three hour workshop on Ayurveda with Matthew Remski. I had heard about him during my teacher training, so I was very excited that he was in Ottawa. Learning about Ayurveda was one of my favourite things about teacher training. Ayurveda is a science.

He told us we should be able to explain Ayurveda in seven steps to people who asked us about it. I’m going to pretend all of you lovely people have asked me about it.

1. We consist of two parts: a thinking part and a perceptual part.

2. A unique combination of the two is what we call our “constitution”.

3. Our constitution can harmonize or clash with our natural and scocial environment, either by conscious choise or by circumstance.

4. If we do not pay attention to the feedback our body gives us, we will prematurely weaken our vitality, then our immunity.

5. As immunity weakens, we get congestion, inflamation and disorganization (we get sick).

6. Good digestion (of food, ideas, experiences) is the root somatic (body) and psychic (mind) health.

7. Pleasure and equinimity are the flowers of balances health.

There you go, now you know about Ayurveda! It’s actually much more complex than that, but it’s a good start.

Now, I’m off to put my camera in my yoga bag and enjoy the rest of my Sunday!