4-30-11

Finally, a day where I was well rested and had actually gotten to sleep the night before my yoga practice, instead of coming straight from work. I also got to the studio at around 8:45. It is the first time I have been there before 9:00 on the dot in about a month or maybe more. I was a little stiffer than usual because I had just woken up and gone into the studio, but i was able to loosen up rather quickly. Because Jenn had done Yoga with Laurie the day before and they worked on the inner leg, she decided we would work on the outer leg. I am definitely a tight individual, I felt every position with little depth necessary, but used my breathing to gradually get deeper into the posture. The whole practice was much better than usual, it is amazing what a world of difference sleep can make. I also stayed awake during shavasana, which is quite an accomplishment for me. We also busted out the straps today. I like the straps because I am a stiff person, so they really help me out.

4-23-11

One thing that I am noticing at this point is how little of the outside environment I am noticing during practice now. When I first started I noticed every time the song would change, I would look around and notice what everyone else was doing. Now I am so much more focused on what I am doing, the rest of the environment just kind of fades away. The only thing I listen for now, is the voice of Alice or Jenn. The rest of the time is spent focusing on maintaining consistent breathing, and squaring up my hips, proper shoulder rotation, making sure my sit bone is tucked, or a variety of other things. I listen for the cues given by Jenn or Alice, because many times there are things that I am forgetting to do. The most common being, breathing. Somehow breathing always gets lost in the midst of setting up into the posture. Then once I feel I have the posture down I remember to breath. My flexibility at this point has improved a little, but not drastically. Going once a week isn't going to make a huge improvement, but I have been trying to concentrate on my stretching after I work out as well, which has helped. Maybe once school is over I can make Yoga a more consistent part of my routine.

p.s. I was a little bit more well rested this week than last week, but I was still pretty exhausted, and fell asleep during shavasana as usual.

4-16-11

This was a particularly difficult day for me. Once again I arrived just on time for class, at 9:00 on the dot. Overall it was a rough week, not much sleep at all. So this yoga practice was the toughest one I had ever done because I was exhausted. Anytime Alice told us to close our eyes I couldn't because I knew I would fall asleep. I was actually going in and out of consciousness in standing asanas. It is hard to remember much of the actual practice itself, I just no it was a battle the whole way through just to maintain consciousness let alone perform the asanas. I could definitely use some sleep.

4-10-11

Work has been really crazy because we are short staffed so I wasn't able to make it out of work before 9 o'clock saturday or sunday. Due to the fact that I already don't go to yoga enough as is, I didn't want to completely miss out on yoga practice, so I decided to do a home practice on Sunday. It's wasn't my first time doing a home practice. I did P90X for a while and it has a yoga video. So that is the video I decided to do. It is an hour and thirty minute long video that consists entirely of vinyasa sequences. It is definitely not an easy session of yoga when you follow the video, especially the balance posture, that is a hard portion of the video. Doing the video just isn't the same as going to the class. Whenever I go to class I feel like time goes by pretty quickly, an hour and fifteen minute session only feels like a half hour. When I'm doing the video though that hour and a half feels like an eternity. Also, being at home doing it just doesn't provide the same atmosphere, there are to many distractions. Lastly, I have no body to correct my form if I am doing a posture incorrectly. I tried to apply what I learned in class, but it just wasn't the same. I am going to try real hard not to miss another class.

4-2-11

Class was packed. I have a hard time getting to class a little bit early to get a spot, and today I barely even made it in on time for class, walking in at about 2 minutes after 9. There were people front to back, wall to wall. I took a spot right up front next to Jen because that was all that was available. It really didn't bother me. In the beginning I would have been self-conscious about being up front, but now that I have been going to the studio for a while I realize that during your practice you don't really notice the people around you, the focus is on yourself. I'm sure it is the same for everyone else as well, so I don't feel like anyone is watching me or judging me. My cousin Emma was at class again, so that was cool. I was pretty tired from work, so I was unable to stay awake during shavasana, although I tried really hard to. Apparently I was snoring pretty loudly because a couple people asked if it was me who was snoring. I must say I am quite impressed with my ability to wake up just in time for turning onto our sides and sitting up for an ohm. With Alice it is pretty easy because she hits a little gong, but I am usually awake just before she hits it anyway.

3-27-11

This was another Sunday for me. At this point I have been mostly going on Saturdays, and although the class sizes have gradually increased as summer grows nearer, there is still a large difference in class sizes on Sunday and Saturday. Sunday has about half the class size as Saturday, which I attribute to the time of class being the same time that many people probably choose to attend church. Plus most people look at Sunday as a day of relaxation. Alice was teaching the class, and it has been a while since I have been in one of her classes. I definitely like her as a teacher. She is soothing, talking you through each movement. She is also a teacher that you can definitely learn a lot of terminology from. Each posture that we transition into she gives the proper terminology for and the westernized phrase for it. Both her and Jen spend pretty much the whole time walking around the room making small changes to individuals postures. When Alice walks around the room, she continually gives cues. It just seems like the air is always filled with her voice. I don't know when the next Sunday I will be able to make it to is, so this could have been my last class with Alice.

3/19/11

In the last post I made, I made note of the fact that the class sizes had been very small for the past two saturdays with Steve as the teacher. Well, the class size grew this weekend. From what I could gather from conversations, he gradually gathered more and more followers as he substituted for more and more classes.
The practice was pretty much identical to the previous week, but I did notice a slight change in Steve. Since he was a couple weeks in now he definitely became more comfortable with the setting and people. He still practiced at the same time as the rest of us, not walking around the room, but this time he was more vocal, making some verbal corrections to people from his spot at the front of the room. I also feel that even though it was the same practice as the prior week that there was a little better flow to it, which I would also attribute to his growing comfort.
One thing that I have benefited from by doing his practice is my hips have gotten more work, and feel a little more open. Every practice that I have gone to with him as the teacher has had a segment that focused on the hip area.
Since this was the last time I will probably see him, unless he substitutes again I would like to say that he was a very polite and friendly gentleman and I enjoyed having him as a teacher.