capture who you are
After yoga?
What do you do after yoga class? You went, you opened, twisted, sweat and stretched it all out. You unleashed emotions and thoughts, and sealed it all in with intention in the end (savasana).
Do you then just go on with your day?
Yoga—if done mindfully—can create euphoria and bring you to your happiest self. It can also bring you to the opposite as it acts as a sort of catalyst to making you face your darkness, as all that you hold inside your tightest body parts rises to the surface and begs for your attention.
Yoga opens you
This happens without notice with yoga poses that open the hips and shoulders, abdominal twists and mainly yoga breathing (i.e., ujjayi pranayama). With yoga, you are not only wringing out toxins, but also releasing emotions and setting energy free...
Be with what you find
Whether magical or disturbing, you can capture the essense of all that comes up in your yoga class by working with it. You can write it down (to share or not), talk about it, drink green juice to rejuvenate the missing gaps or simply be with "it" and acknowledge it. It calms your nervous system to take your yoga to the next level by realizing all that you become afterward. [The photo above has special meaning to me, each leaf.]
Your yoga practice is a direct reflection of your life. The way you handle a challenging yoga pose that stresses your muscles, your ego, or touches an injury, is the way you handle challenges that come up in life. For this reason, if you watch your mind during the difficult postures, and breathe into it and treat yourself with patience, you can train yourself for life's difficulties, confrontations, hindrances, sadness-provoking situations and toxic people.
Don't leave before savasana!
Some people leave class *before* savasana. I don't understand this. It's the grand finale and place to really capture the reason you are there in the first place.
Each has his/her own reason for leaving early sometimes, whether it be to pick up a child (and it's better to go to yoga partialy than not at all) or feeling sick, for instance. However, there are many other reasons people leave early, and their departure before the mental or physical challenge only causes them to lose out on lessons:
1. Fatigue
2. Dislike the music or heat or neighbor
3. Stillness at the end too quiet
4. Boredom
5. Challenge
6. Sadness
Regardless of the six reason above, these are great chances to practice withstanding fatique in any life situation, seeing the goodness in others, losing denial and feeling truth, focusing on intention building and going inside, breathing into physical challenge and transforming strong emotions into personal power.
Keep your clarity
Remembering that yoga is not just exercise is to be on your way to knowing that your class is only the first step; it's an opening that leads you to the avenue to your dreams. It brings you more clarity and leaves you with the feeling that you just did something awesome for yourself.
Be introspective. Take your yoga to the next level and find the answers you hold (even from yourself). Be you, creative™.
© 2013 Yoga Robin®