where the blueboots go

What do I do when it hits a high of 75 degrees in Boston?

Find any excuse to get outside.

I took the opportunity this evening to explore a vinyasa flow yoga class in Inman Square.  I had been wanting to check out a yoga class as my … baby steps towards working out. It was a small class, which was good – I hadn’t done any kind of yoga since 3 years ago and only very, very sparsely prior. I’m getting to the point where I scarcely care about trying out new things in new neighborhoods without friends, so I ventured out solo. It’s good- some personal adventures can be broadening.

Well, yoga isn’t easy for me. Dance is a lot easier, even if also requires poise and discipline. Sometimes I get dizzy and often started shaking trying to stay balanced as we jump from one position to the next, but hey, I didn’t fall once! The instructor said that shaking meant I was getting stronger. I’d like to believe that: it sure felt like my muscles were all getting a work out.

The class was all about breathing and paying attention to your breath. I secretly wanted to go to yoga because it might teach me how to breathe. I can just see my wheezing cells (within my cartooney sensibility), always starved for some high-quality oxygen. Honestly, to some people, healthy breathing comes naturally. Actually, probably to most people. To me, no – somehow I missed that lesson as a child and have to consciously think about my breathing if I want it to actually benefit me.

Constant reminders about quality of breathing (it must be DEEP) reminds me of a hymn.

Here are two great verses:

I am breathing out my own life,
That I may be filled with Thine;
Letting go my strength and weakness,
Breathing in Thy life divine.

I came home, had dinner, and my roommate was complaining about a painful back. I rolled out my mat and offered to show her a few stretches that I’d learned in class, really, half kidding. She went off to “study” and I heard a yell and a thud and ran over to where she was laughing in her room – on the floor.Apparently, she had been trying to remember what I’d just demonstrated and couldn’t.

Anyway, I could not keep a straight face or keep from laughing throughout the next 20 minutes: at her request, I proceeded to give her a yoga lesson in her room, hitting mirrors and walls and other objects with our long arms as we stretched. I think I laughed more than I breathed in that entire time. I couldn’t believe I was actually trying to teach her yoga and that she was willing to learn- something about that seemed so funny to me! (probably why I couldn’t stop laughing for more than a couple of minutes at a time). Utterly absorbed in Advanced Designs and Math and Engineering, my roommate was stretching at one point and after I had asked her to turn to one side and extend her arm, her hand hit her calculus book and out of the corner of my eye, I could see her starting to tug it off the bookshelf, all the while twisted on her back in a stretch. Ohhhhh my =). So much for relaxation…

YAY for 75 degrees in Boston! and for breathing!