YOGA

When I was doing my fieldwork placement in Thunder Bay in 2012, I started practicing yoga. I just went once a week, cause it felt nice to get a good stretch in, so I was by no means a real 'yogi'. I just liked going and being relaxed, not to mention, the more I went, the more I could tell I was actually improving! When I moved to Fernie, I didn't do yoga .. are you kidding? Me doing yoga in a mountain town would be like when Derek Zoolander went to go work on the coal mine - I would be wayyyyy out of my league! When I moved back to Thunder Bay that summer, I don't think I did any yoga so last year when I moved back to Winnipeg, I was ready to get back into it.

The gym I go to offers normal yoga and hot yoga. At first, I was very skeptical of hot yoga. I'm a sweaty person, I'm not afraid to admit that. I sweat a fair amount in regular temperature yoga, so the thought of basically doing yoga in a sauna, freaked me out! I eventually tried it out, and let me tell you - I love it! I'm still not really a 'yogi' and I only know one pose by name.. Shavasana. It's literally the BEST one. It's how you start yoga. Lying on your back, relaxed. I could stay in this pose for hours. In fact, the classes I go to are usually at 5:30 and I get off work at 4:30..... so I may or may not use the extra 35 minutes at the gym to lay on my mat and have a snooze before class. Is this frowned upon? Cause I don't care. It's the best thing ever to lay in the heat. Ahhhhhh yessssss.

I hope I haven't lost too many of you on this one... I'm getting to the good part, don't worry - a list!

Things I Think About (And hopefully I'm not the only one) During Yoga

1. I wish I could lay here and never move. They should have a yoga class that is an hour of shavasana.... I guess I could also just go to day care for nap time.

2. Oh good, I've literally just laid out my mat and I've sweat more than a sinner in church

3. Someone is in my favourite spot. I hope they're better than me at yoga so they deserve it at least....

4. Who is breathing like Darth Vader? We haven't even started yet.........

5. Ugh, shorts was a bad idea. Sweat is too slippery, I can't hold my legs.

6. Why is this male yoga instructor in his underwear? Oh, those are men's yoga shorts of some kind? No, they are his gitch.

7. I hope everyone else is sweating as much as I am

8. You want me to do what?

9. Wow, someone's for sure gonna fart in this pose.

10. Maybe I should become a Buddhist? Do Buddhist people do yoga?

11. I wonder if the instructor can even do this? Oh, they are showing a progression. Yup, now they're floating in mid air, so I guess me asking if they could do the basic thing that I think is impossible is silly.

12. I am a tree.

13. Are we on the sun?

14. Seriously, Darth Vader.... take it easy man.

15. YAYYYYYY shavasana again! I hope she doesn't make us finish sitting up and cross legged cause as far as I'm concerned I'm not moving for at least another half hour now that I'm laying here

16. I'm melting into the mat.. is this what it's like to be Olaf? Oh my gosh, I'm so funny!


Okay, I hope some of those made you chuckle.. I probably think of way more things that don't make sense cause the heat probably makes me delirious so.... just gonna end it with this piece of advice. If someone's yoga mat is in the room, all set up and ready to go, give them a good two feet of space on each side of their mat. There is nothing worse than setting down your mat to make sure you get a spot, leaving to get changed and coming back and seeing that no, your mat didn't double in size - some idiot just decided they wanted to do Siamese Twin (is that politically correct?? I don't mean to offend anyone who is Siamese or a Siamese Twin....) yoga with me. Oh wait, there IS something worse than that which is waking up from your pre-yoga snooze (I wasn't joking when I said I get there like a half hour early so I just lay there and nap in the heat) and realizing there is a body close to yours that should not be there. The icing on the cake of this is when there is TONS of room left in the studio. Just cause I always get the prime spot in the back where I can hide from the instructor and still have a good view of myself in the mirror, people wanna be near me. GO AWAY CRAZIES.

Have a FANTASTIC weekend, everyone!!

Namaste :)