I am a person who has never been too inclined towards physical activities. I do try to spend a few hours at the gym every week but unfortunately end up sacrificing it for a new book or an hour more of Game of Thrones. The lack of motivation is not because I undermine the need for physical exercise but because gym seems very monotonous to me. If a person is not a "gym buff", it can be boring at times. So I have mostly blamed my lack of exercise on the fact that office days are busy, too much of work and so on. After moving to Florida, I have been relatively free and so I have been working out more (no more excuses you see).
When I got an opportunity to join Yoga classes, I jumped at the idea. It would mean learning a new form of exercise and a break from the monotony of gym. The form of yoga that I was going to learn was "Hot Yoga". The name itself sounded interesting (with some double-meanings) but I wondered what "Hot Yoga" really was. A quick internet search gave me the answer... "Hot Yoga" refers to yoga exercises performed under hot and humid conditions. Heat is said to increase flexibility in the body and "Hot Yoga" seeks to replicate heat and humidity of India where yoga has originated.
The neighborhood classes that I was planning to take taught the form "Vinyasa" which is one of the popular forms of "Hot Yoga". The word Vinyasa comes from the Sanskrit word "Vi" meaning "in a special way" and "nyasa" meaning "to place". One common definition of "Vinyasa" is "linking breath with movement" or as my instructor explained during my first class... "flowing like water to music".
Before I started my classes, I realized that "Hot Yoga" required special hot yoga mats which absorbed sweat (the heat facilitated the sweating). However, as I already had a regular yoga mat, the instructor said I could cover it with a towel and roll with it! So with a lot of excitement, I went for my first class.
The first class was an eye-opener and mostly a mess. I realized that the first hurdle to overcome was the extreme heat and sweating. Thankfully I come from a hot and humid place (thanks Kolkata!) so my body got accustomed to the heat quite fast. The class was a mixed group of people comprising of mostly advanced students (who practice yoga as part of their lifestyle). The dimly-lit hall, the music and the heat all contributed to make it an unique atmosphere. The hour and half long session was a continuous flow of movements and postures and my first class was pretty much copying the others and trying to learn the postures. At the end of the class, I was thoroughly wiped out but my instructor encouraged me saying that most people are not able to complete the whole duration of the class on their first day so yayy!
From the second class onward, my instructor explained that I was trying to learn all the postures in a hurry and to only concentrate on the simple movements in the beginning. So I started to relax and actually enjoyed learning the movements. I began to experience the heat cleansing my toxins, the smell of the essential oils mixed in the heat and the beautiful flowing movements. "Hot Yoga" when done properly, is extremely refreshing (all that sweating) and gives you a sense of peace and relaxation. One line which caught my attention everyday was "leave you external troubles and thoughts outside the class and remember that these 90 minutes are just for you".
By the end of two weeks, I was able to "feel" the body the flowing from one posture to the next. I plan to continue practicing it and hopefully incorporate it into my daily routine. Of course, the head-stands and hand-stands are still a long way off but you got to start somewhere!
There are a few things I observed about yoga:
When I got an opportunity to join Yoga classes, I jumped at the idea. It would mean learning a new form of exercise and a break from the monotony of gym. The form of yoga that I was going to learn was "Hot Yoga". The name itself sounded interesting (with some double-meanings) but I wondered what "Hot Yoga" really was. A quick internet search gave me the answer... "Hot Yoga" refers to yoga exercises performed under hot and humid conditions. Heat is said to increase flexibility in the body and "Hot Yoga" seeks to replicate heat and humidity of India where yoga has originated.
The neighborhood classes that I was planning to take taught the form "Vinyasa" which is one of the popular forms of "Hot Yoga". The word Vinyasa comes from the Sanskrit word "Vi" meaning "in a special way" and "nyasa" meaning "to place". One common definition of "Vinyasa" is "linking breath with movement" or as my instructor explained during my first class... "flowing like water to music".
Before I started my classes, I realized that "Hot Yoga" required special hot yoga mats which absorbed sweat (the heat facilitated the sweating). However, as I already had a regular yoga mat, the instructor said I could cover it with a towel and roll with it! So with a lot of excitement, I went for my first class.
The first class was an eye-opener and mostly a mess. I realized that the first hurdle to overcome was the extreme heat and sweating. Thankfully I come from a hot and humid place (thanks Kolkata!) so my body got accustomed to the heat quite fast. The class was a mixed group of people comprising of mostly advanced students (who practice yoga as part of their lifestyle). The dimly-lit hall, the music and the heat all contributed to make it an unique atmosphere. The hour and half long session was a continuous flow of movements and postures and my first class was pretty much copying the others and trying to learn the postures. At the end of the class, I was thoroughly wiped out but my instructor encouraged me saying that most people are not able to complete the whole duration of the class on their first day so yayy!
From the second class onward, my instructor explained that I was trying to learn all the postures in a hurry and to only concentrate on the simple movements in the beginning. So I started to relax and actually enjoyed learning the movements. I began to experience the heat cleansing my toxins, the smell of the essential oils mixed in the heat and the beautiful flowing movements. "Hot Yoga" when done properly, is extremely refreshing (all that sweating) and gives you a sense of peace and relaxation. One line which caught my attention everyday was "leave you external troubles and thoughts outside the class and remember that these 90 minutes are just for you".
By the end of two weeks, I was able to "feel" the body the flowing from one posture to the next. I plan to continue practicing it and hopefully incorporate it into my daily routine. Of course, the head-stands and hand-stands are still a long way off but you got to start somewhere!
There are a few things I observed about yoga:
- The best time to start practicing yoga is at an young age and make it part of your lifestyle (like the morning tea). The body is more flexible and it is infinitely easier to stand on your head then (I think).
- My class was comprised of all non-Indian young people and they were all very advanced. Which makes it ironic that this is something that originated in our country but people (by this I mean masses) have still not embraced it enough whereas people here have made it a part of their daily routine.
- My instructors (they were rotated during a week) always stressed on one point - yoga is about your body and only do what feels good to you. They encouraged us to go ahead and try our own routines or skip routines if we did not feel like doing it. It was almost like a friendly session as opposed to a strict student-teacher environment.
- Western countries have really stylized yoga. The amount of fashionable clothes that I saw in the yoga studio was amazing. When I tried to learn yoga during my school days, my instructor used to be a salwar-clad lady and she still managed her postures! Now we have entire sections of Yoga clothes/ mats/ paraphernalia and it is important to dress the part.
In conclusion, give yoga... any form of yoga a try. It might not become a lifestyle for many of us, but it is definitely something worth investing time and effort into. Maybe it will transform your life or maybe it won't but the hour that you spend doing it will be completely for your mind and body.
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