March 30 - Bad/Good Yoga

I just got back from one of the worst yoga classes I have maybe ever been to. The crazy thing is, it was still a ton of fun. And free. Most importantly, free.

I’m typically pretty good with accents, but let me tell you. I could understand about 2 of every 5 words coming out of this instructor’s mouth. Half the time he didn’t even give a cue, but instead went to his own mat to demonstrate… and the mat was nearly impossible for me to see.

I really, really hate to admit this, but yoga is typically a time for me to shine. Yoga’s all about staying ‘on your mat’ and not caring about how other people view you… but I’m really good at it. And sometimes it’s nice to be acknowledged for the things you’re really good at.

However, in this horrible, no-good yoga class, I found myself not caring at all about what I looked like or how I was perceived. Instead, I found it funny! I was concentrating so hard on following all of the instructor’s chaotic cues to the best of my ability that I didn’t really have time to focus on anything else. I didn’t overdo any poses, running the risk of overstretching and hurting myself, because I quite literally did not have time. As soon as he called one thing, he was up there on his mat demonstrating the next. Nothing made sense. I couldn’t ever guess what was coming next. And because of that, the class never even gave me the opportunity to ‘show off’. I think that everyone was just as confused and concentrated as I was. It was oddly freeing.

That was chaotic. I mouthed to my friend once class was over and we were packing up. The instructor was nowhere to be seen (right on brand with the chaos class) but I still didn’t want to risk him hearing.

My friend laughed. Yeah, I’m no good at yoga and even I could tell we skipped a few sides.

I stifled a laugh. He was right. I think we’d done twice as many rights as we had lefts throughout the class.

I’m home from yoga, and while I can look back and see it for what it was - a very, very poor yoga class - I’ve gotta say I’m in a shockingly good, carefree mood. Bad yoga turned Good.