Morning is different for many people. I tend to wake up fairly early and enjoy being a little quiet while I get my self together for the day. I certainly appreciate the ritual of coffee in the morning prior to engaging in the world.
As a father, mornings tend to be anything but that. Sweet young people will often come into my bed to snuggle and reconnect. Mornings then erupt into "...'Dad, I want my blue shirt? 'Dad, can you find my Darth Vader Lego.' 'Dad can I have cold lunch today? I hate those plastic-cheese nachos.' etc etc etc. Then comes the intrasibling brawls... if you are a parent, you know the drill. If you are a sib, you know the drill. If you are neither, you are really missing a rich part of life.
Yoga is never on the morning routine. As a thought, going from the cocoon of a warm bed, to some sweats or shorts with the intention of hitting the mat, it just sounds off. I have run, cycled, walked, skied, snowshoed, hiked and all other sports before 7:00am. All these seem like adventures, excitement, reasons to get out of bed.
Yoga involves stretching the body. My particular body is one that responds slowly to stretching. It tends to talk back to me all the time I am stretching. Throwing my body to that kind of backtalk, first thing in the morning is like dealing with a sassy gradeschooler while still in the cloudy brain of early morning.
I enjoy yoga, just not in the morning.
Today, I went to a 7:30am class. Namaspa has a class that just happens to fit my schedule and will certainly keep me on my path. So, with all that anti-morning-yoga-chatter in my mind, I went.
I was astounded at how many people were there. My guess is it was 75% full, mostly women- 3 men. The room was warm and quiet. No music was playing. Most people appeared to still be in the quiet of their morning.
The instructor started off by saying she runs a challenging class. With my stiff body attempting to simply stretch my hamstrings, this was the last thing I wanted to hear.
I sweat, A LOT. I don't have any 'odor' to my perspiration but I definitely sweat enough for three people. The challenging class she offered would push me to the realm of four people.
As I hold plank pose and shudder from my naval to my shoulders, I watch the sweat drip off of nose, just one more drip shy of a stream. I think this amount of perspiration in likely a good thing. Toxins must be leaving my body in these rivulets of sweat. Only in Yoga do I sweat this much.
With the exception of intense core/abdominal work and my chronically tight hamstrings, the morning class was fantastic. Our instructor let us all in on a secret: Core work never really gets better. I am happy to know that even the yogini pretzels in the class find core work challenging. My hamstrings, hopefully, will eventually give way to flexibility.
Although the first 15 minutes of the class were a struggle to get going, I will go to morning classes again. Today, I feel strong and alive, centered and thankful for the time this morning.
Its a toss up- Morning Yoga or sleeping in. Until this morning, Yoga wasn't on the list. It's amazing how given opportunity and a willing participant, the whole world can change. I am willing.
Yes, chances are that noticeably sweaty guy next to you is me.
Namaste-
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