When the Timing is Right

Serendipity, fate, or luck brought me to One Center Yoga. One Center Yoga is located in the artsy Appalachian town of Asheville, NC.  Think beautiful mountain setting, preserved, historic Art Deco buildings and Arts and Crafts bungalows, folk art, music, local food movement, alternative lifestyles, holistic living.  Perfect place for a yoga retreat!

For my 50^th birthday, I decided to treat myself to some much needed rest and relaxation. Three years of a daily 2-hour commute with little time for exercise and constant fatigue, my body and soul cried out for a change. I googled “Iyengar yoga” AND “Asheville” and discovered a 5 week-end yoga series called “Life Transformation Course” at One Center Yoga with Lillah Schwartz.  Guess what?  I just won the yoga lottery!  As soon as I read the course content, I knew this class series was the direction I sought: the timing was right.

Lillah and her assistant, Mili, did not disappoint.  The classes are designed for students teaching yoga. However, they also embrace the aspiring yogi, like me. Over the course of the weekend, I learned a lot, refined even more, and opened myself once again to the restorative and rejuvenating aspects of yoga. I found myself slowing down internally even as I worked hard through the poses.  I felt great!  I returned home with new yoga props and books—The Runner’s Yoga Book by Jean Couch and T.K.V. Deskikachar’s The Heart of Yoga— alongside a strong desire to practice, practice, practice. 

The good news is that I get to go back next month!

There’s no place like Om.

Except that Om at home feels self-conscious. Why?

Sitting on my mat in my living room, I prepare for yoga with a couple of breaths and then  breathe more deeply, letting go of the exhale, gearing up for Om, but, instead of the robust, energizing sound in class, out comes something squeaky and weak. I sound like a yogi with laryngitis.

What’s happening? Why can’t I get the Om out?  Is it that the house is asleep and I’m afraid to wake the children and spouse? Or, is it that my yoga practice occurs between the preparation of dinner and dishes and I fear burning the rice? For sure, there are many demands on my time and many distractions as well, so my attempts to focus, starting with the Om, are a challenge.  If I’m honest, the real fear is not my family’s sleep or dinner, but the bold pursuit of a new passion that belongs to me and me alone. Don’t get me wrong. My family likes that I’m back in the saddle, so to speak, and on the yoga bandwagon again. According to them, I’m nicer and easier to live with.  This feels different, however.  For the first time, I’m on a path that is not about anyone but me.  For sure, I hope that a more serious study of yoga will make me more compassionate, more ethical, and more mindful, but not for anyone’s benefit but mine. It’s with some trepidation and hope that I can articulate and find my voice and that my Om will find a home amongst the people I love the most.

 

Starting with Om

Om awakens me to a new chance, a new class, a new opportunity. It signals the shift between the demands of life as daughter, mother, spouse, employee, to practice time. It is the transition between the external and the internal.

In the beginning, there was breath, there was sound, there was energy.

Om.  A monosyllabic vocalization that is both primal and intuitive. It is the rumble before the storm. It is the rising wave before the crash. It stirs me from deep within.

 It goes like this:  deep breath in through the nose.  Allow the belly to expand and the lungs to fill to capacity.  Then, greet the pause, the break before the force of energy on the exhale rushes through the windpipes and across the vocal cords. Release the sound that reverberates in the mouth, the nose, the head, the chest.  Feel the vibration; feel the buzz.  Ommmmm, it feels good.

We come into the world with a breath, and we leave the world with our last breath.  Between these two breaths is life:  this is Om.

Back to Basics

Yoga props:
Mat
Blankets
Belt
Blocks
Tights
T-shirt

Now that I just turned 50 and am perched on the cusp of a new decade, I decided to revisit yoga. Ten years ago, I discovered Iyengar yoga and immediately loved it. Prior to my first class, yoga seemed strange and esoteric to me, but then I realized yoga was basically stretching. “Oh,” I said to myself, “I can do this!” My practice calmed me and relaxed me, yet establishing a regular routine seemed impossible.

When I shared with my daughter my idea to reboot my yoga practice and reflect upon the experience, she responded: Just like “Eat, Pray, Love” without the “Eat” and the “Love.” Yes, exactly. I want to return to my sticky mat, blocks, belts, and blankets. I crave the physical and spiritual discipline that I know yoga can demand. For some reason, my life became so complicated, and I neglected to pay attention to the simple acts of soulful living: how to sit up straight, how to be still, and how to be truly grateful for the inhale and exhale of breath. For me, it’s back to the basics.