No pain, no humming !!! (Yoga in general)

Member Name: Blondie Jill

Product:	Yoga in general
Date:	01/08/01 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relaxing, Free, Good for you

Disadvantages: Can be hard if you have trouble with mobility.

First thoughts.

When the suggestion of going to a yoga class was put forward to me the first thoughts that came into my head were me sitting on the floor, putting myself into some very painful positions and humming a lot. Not appealing at all. However not having had any experience of yoga I thought why not, it might actually do me some good.


Tight tops and pants.

On the day of the class I decided to put something comfy on. I thought this might be a wise decision so I could move into those strange positions without being put into severe pain by a pair of tight trousers or a clingy top. I walked up to the gym slowly wondering what was going to happen. I arrived early and decided to take the opportunity to watch who was going into the studio where the class was to be held.

Old people can get their legs over their heads.

At the class there seemed to be a gathering of people, mainly women although there were a few men, who were all at least twenty years older than me but they seemed to know what to do so I followed their lead and I thought if they can get their legs over their heads then I am sure I can manage. Everyone took an exercise mat and took off their shoes and socks. I continued to watch.

Bad reading.

The lady who taught the class came over to me obviously sensing that I was new to the group by the way I was looking for the candles and incense sticks. She introduced herself and handed me two pieces of paper, which explained about Yoga, and it’s benefits. However reading down the page I started to worry as it explained that some of the positions might be too hard for a first timer and that I might experience some pain and nausea. Great, wonderful I thought. How relaxing this is gong to be, but I was there so I thought I might as well stay now.

Lets pray.

By now most of the class were now lying on the floor on the exercise mats, doing absolutely nothing, just lying ther
e in silence. I didn’t know what was going to happen next and wondered how lying down would cause me pain or make me feel sick but I continued to wait as they did for the teacher to begin. Her voice started. Having positioned myself at the back of the class well out of the way I found it a little hard at first to tell what she was saying as her voice was so quiet. Making myself listen a little harder I heard her say “Now put yourselves into the praying position”. I quietly thought to myself what on earth are we going to have to do if we have to pray before we do it? My confidence levels were dropping quickly.

The real Yoga

After a few minutes I was still waiting for the humming and strange positions to start but nothing at all like this happened. Throughout the class we went through a variety of stretches and postures for every part of the body, even though some of the stretches were quite hard there was nothing, much to my relief that involved putting legs over heads and defiantly no humming. All we had to concentrate on was our balance throughout some of our stretches as the involved standing on one leg and our breathing through out the whole session. I found this quite easy and was relived to be able to join in.

Our trip to the lavender garden.

In the last fifteen minutes of the class the teacher told us to gather our things and get ourselves into the final yoga relaxing position. Once again being new to this class I had no idea what was going to happen but everyone seemed to be lying down again. Once everyone was settled a bag full of lavender was passed around and everyone was told to take a piece. This really confused me. Why did we need lavender to do yoga? After a few minutes of lying completely still I could hear music, which was claming, and then a voice came on and started with “Imagine you are in a lavender garden “. Now I knew what the lavender was for as by now its sent was lingering
around my nose. The tape continued and made us imagine that we were in a garden and we felt relaxed and clam, and it certainly did. I found it hard to realise where I was when the tape stopped. After slowly getting up we finished the class with one final stretch of the whole body and that was it, I had stayed in a yoga class for a whole hour and enjoyed it.

Final thoughts.

After my first ever experience of yoga, I can say that I really enjoyed it and found it really relaxing. Even the stretches made me feel better and more awake. I was also very relived to find I had not put myself into any strange positions and didn’t make any humming sounds. All in all it was a great experience and in my opinion if you think like I did and assume it’s hard and your not going to be able to do it then just give it one go. My first experience certainly changed my mind about yoga.

Summary: