My First Classical Hatha Yoga Class

For the first time in years-other than a beginner's Baptiste vinyasa class I did years ago- I went to an actual yoga class at an actual yoga studio! Yeah I know. It was a 90-minute long Classical Hatha Yoga and Meditation class held at a local yoga studio in Laramie (name to be disclosed later ;-). I was nervous about going. I had no idea what to expect how many people would be there, what level everyone would be at or what the instructor would be like. It was complete darkness to me. I was originally supposed to go with a friend and colleague of mine, but due to our lives as grad students she was unable to make it. But instead of backing out, I decided to go anyway and I loved it!

It was completely and I mean completely different from what I'm used to practicing at home, the style of it was different, the speed and the combination of poses was completely left field for me. And OMG, the Suryanamaskar was a different speed, style and combination of poses-way too fast for my liking and compared to what I do at home. My initial thoughts were like "whelp I won't be coming here anymore" but for some reason after progressing through the whole hour and a half of practice-which went by faster than blinking my eye- I found myself wanting to come back. Really feeling like this is what I need. A challenge, a push and a place outside my home with help from a professional to do that.

Our instructor appeared to be around my age if not younger, but who knows - yogis tend to look younger than what they really are and despite that it really doesn't matter and I found a yoga instructor who had been certified at 16!!! (sorry for the rambling, energy is flowing). You could tell she knew her stuff too as she called each pose by its sanskrit name and only referred to it in english if we had these "what is that?" looks on our faces. She was awesome. She had me getting into or at least attempting to do poses that I had either one never heard of or two never tried like dolphin pose or makarasana, camel pose or ustrasana and fish pose or matsyasana. But the most shocking of all was headstand or a variation of it. I believe its called salamba sirsasana its a headstand but you are balancing and using your forearms to hold you up. When she announced this my first thought was here comes the laughing and the falling. But luckily, there was one other student who hadn't tried it either and our instructor eagerly assisted us in getting into the pose. My initial thoughts of fear and embarrassment quickly dissipated before she even got to me and instead I was filled with acceptance of myself and reassurance that as long as I keep on this path, I will be able to do salamba sirsasana on my own.

*Here's a pic just for reference at how scared and intimidated I was.

That is huge for me as I'm the worry-wart type that is always putting pressure on myself to perform and perform at a level that is beyond the average individual. The fact that one I had the thought of acceptance of my novice level in asanas and that two the original pressurizing thoughts quickly dissipated is huge for me and my spiritual walk.

Needless to say I loved the class and look forward to going back every week, alone or accompanied.