Hot, hot heat.

So I tried hot yoga tonight with some girlfriends of mine. I didn’t know what to expect or better, I didn’t think to expect anything other than sweating. I know a few poses so…..I figured I was ahead of the game (thank you beginners yoga, almost 6 whole years ago). Boy was I wrong.
The class was full of people the minute we arrived. And the heat was..well, very hot. Being more of the cold weather type, I was immediately turned off by the swelter. I felt claustrophobic and unsure that I would be able to make it through. However I reminded myself that I didn’t want to be the person who doesn’t try anything new, or for that matter, hard. And so we began our rituals: Upward facing dog into downward facing dog into warrior’s pose and back down again to forward facing dog…over and over and over, in the dry heated air and the warm floor boards under the sticky mats with sweat starting to form in all folds and corners on our bodies.

Amazing Yoga, South Side Pittsburgh

At the midway point of the class, I felt done. I was extremely hot, extremely challenged – this was not easy. I started asking myself if even a free week of this stuff was worth the torture I was feeling……the embarrassment of not being able to keep up with the pregnant instructor, the shaking in my muscles as I stretch my arms as high as they can go, the sweat I felt dripping through my hair (this is completely foreign to me, as I am not usually this much of a sweater when I work out) – MY PHONE RANG and disturbed the class for Christ’s sake, I can barely get out of my routine-driven world for an hour and a half, how can I make it through another class????
But then the instructor started to speak, and what she was saying made so much sense. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before or even thought of myself when pandering the benefits of yoga. But it was something that I let life’s foibles and follies (thank you Kate) cloud up my brain. She was saying how learning to breathe through the stress of the poses would teach you how to calm down in your daily life and help you to deal with other stressful situations that don’t have anything to do with physical exertion. Basically, the benefits you feel either during or after yoga can follow you throughout your days and resurface when you need them most.
I feel like this is such an important thing to take away from tonight’s class. I’m glad it was hard, I’m glad it was different. Physically, it reminds me that trying something new can feel so much different than I have ever anticipated – my muscles feel amazing! Mentally, I was taught that following through with something even though it’s hard can be surprisingly eye opening – had I not stayed through the whole class, I wouldn’t have been reminded of how much stress I don’t have to feel in my day. I was once again made aware that I have control over my reactions to that which I may not have the ability to change.
That in one night? Wonder what the rest of my free week will be like…

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