Yoga Speak: Movement

From one day to the next, I look forward to yoga.

It has been a year and a half since I stepped into the studio, and I never tire of it. I like preparing to go. I like being there. I like the workout. And, in turn, I like whatever it is I am doing afterwards. 

The after effects of each class stay with me until the next class, and so I go as often as I can.  It is a good place, and it puts me in a good space. 

I cannot exactly pinpoint what it is about yoga that clicks with me, but something about it definitely does. And, it is not something new to which it connects but rather to something seemingly age old in me.

In yesterday morning's class, we were in a flow, moving amongst many different poses. We flowed from Warrior II to High Lunge to Warrior I. We swept our arms down and back and raised them up again. We leaned back and spread our arms open and then swept them down again.

The music played, my body flowed and my mind did, too, back to when I was six or seven or eight years old in ballet class.

We moved into Standing Split and then brought our feet together for a forward fold. We lifted halfway and folded again and then flowed into Warrior II once more. We straightened our front leg and flowed into Triangle pose.

My body reached forward and my mind reached back, and I so vividly remembered myself in my black leotard and pink tights doing The Fun Step. This happened at the end of ballet class when the teacher would map out a pattern of steps across the room and change up the music. We would skip and hop, one at a time, traveling from one corner to the next on a diagonal. I loved it.

I remember always looking down to see my feet but not being able to find them because my little girl’s stomach blocked the view of my toes!

We flowed back to Warrior II and then sailed right into Half Moon. I bent my back leg and grabbed my ankle for a sideways backbend.

As a little girl, I never wanted to go to ballet. It was scheduled on Saturday mornings when I was allowed to watch TV, and I did not want to do anything but watch H.R. Puff and Stuff. But, I was always happy at the end of class when the good music played, and we flowed freely with The Fun Step. After class, I would hang back to watch the older girls dancing jazz, wishing to be one of them, dancing more freely and always to better music.

Ultimately, my mother caved, and I left the ballet scene only to wish in my teenage years that I had not. I filled in the gap with other dance classes and dance squads throughout my middle and high school years. In college, I filled in my physical education requirement with a dance class, too.

We moved through our Vinyasa and repeated the flow on the other side, moving from one big motion to the next.

There has always been something about movement and music that works for me, and somehow, my instructor gets it. I have taken other yoga classes, but I think there is something he understands about the body, music and movement that I do not get in any other class.

He plays the good music and tells us, I like moving between big motions, and he instructs us through the flows that make up the first part of the class. I understand this as I follow his instructions and sail freely between the big poses.

It is like doing The Fun Step all over again, but this time I can see my toes.

A collection of Anne's posts can be found at http://YogaSpeak.blogspot.com