I am not a joiner. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. I’ve never participated in a team sport, and the only classes in which I ever engaged were related to art or writing – solo activities that just happened to occur with others in a shared space.
When my massage therapist started to push me to try yoga, I was resistant. Not because yoga is a team sport – obviously, it’s not. But because I have never attended an exercise class on my own. I’m the type of person who prefers jumping on an elliptical machine, a stair master, a treadmill … lifting weights in a corner of the gym … stretching … and going home. All with limited socialization and very little attention paid to others.
You saw my post a few weeks ago, about the 5k? Remember how I mentioned that stretching is necessary? And how my hips and hamstrings suffered for a week afterward? Well … yeah. I’ve been needing those muscles to stretch for quite some time – long before I even considered a 5k.
So, I finally decided that it was time to heed my body's signals and get myself to a yoga class. Anyone who lives in my fair city probably knows that we have many, many studios offering many types of yoga – and a multitude of different classes for each type. Calgary is an active city, full of cyclists and runners and hikers, skiers and snowboarders … people who generally care about their health and fitness. Finding a yoga studio, therefore, should have been quite easy.
But here’s a fun fact: finding a studio that offers the right type of class for your body, at a time of day that works with your schedule, is more difficult than it may seem. After months of investigating on and off, I finally found one that looked promising. The studio was a little out of my way, but not too bad. And it offered a few classes that appealed to me, at times that wouldn’t require me to go home and then leave again (I’m not good at that – once I’m home, I generally just want to stay there).
But going on my own, having not tried yoga for at least a decade, and with so many injuries and issues to address? Scary! I guess I'm one of those people who erroneously believes that to do yoga, one must already know yoga. Which is, of course, ridiculous. Everyone has to start somewhere, and you can’t learn if you don’t go! The rational part of my brain knows this. However, the non-joiner part of me – the wallflower – really doesn’t care about what’s rational.
When a friend of mine said she’d attend a class with me, it eased my mind considerably. No need to be nervous now! I’d be there with a friend! Even if I were 100% focused on my own body (just the way I like my exercise to be), I’d have the moral support I needed to function in an unfamiliar place, among unfamiliar people, doing something that really is outside of my comfort zone (literally – my body is wound so tight, it creaks and cracks when I move).
But my friend couldn’t make it to that first class. She offered to join me the following week, but what was a girl to do? I had two options: Wait until the following week and go with my friend, or just do it anyway. Solo. Be a joiner. Be a beginner. Look like an idiot while I tried to contort my body in strange and unnatural positions.
I know it doesn’t seem like a big thing, but I’m proud to say that I did do it anyway. I went to the class. On my own. I spoke to the instructor beforehand, found a place in the room where I could see him, and just went for it. Was it hard? Hell, yes! Have you tried yoga?! Oh, but wait. I guess you’re probably wondering if the part about going by myself was hard. Let's just say it made me a little nervous. Just a little, but enough to cause me some discomfort. Of course, once I’d spoken with the instructor, I really was left to my own devices. I wasn’t socializing with anyone. I wasn’t joining a group. I was actually still doing my own thing … which suited me just fine.
The best part - well, one of them - was that no one was watching me contort my body in strange and unnatural ways. They were concentrating on their own bodies ... their own contortions.
The other best part? I actually was able to contort myself much more successfully than I'd expected. I'd say that sounds just a little bit like success!
Since then, I’ve attended another class at the same studio and I have 6 or 7 more scheduled over the next three weeks. The only thing I’ve discovered here – the only piece of enlightenment I can offer – is that once you do it, it’s really easy to go back and do it again. Well, maybe not physically easy. My body ached for days after that first session! But mentally, it’s no big deal.
So this time around, I didn’t do anything I didn’t know I couldn’t do. I did know, in fact, that I could do it. I just didn’t want to - not by myself. So it was a step forward.
Perhaps, in the future, other classes will seem less daunting, now that I've pushed myself just a little farther than I might have done in the past. Perhaps, in the future, I might finally don that swimsuit and take a water class. I may feel damned uncomfortable, and I may be out of shape when I begin. But you have to start somewhere.
Sometimes taking that first step is all you need.
Namaste.
Since then, I’ve attended another class at the same studio and I have 6 or 7 more scheduled over the next three weeks. The only thing I’ve discovered here – the only piece of enlightenment I can offer – is that once you do it, it’s really easy to go back and do it again. Well, maybe not physically easy. My body ached for days after that first session! But mentally, it’s no big deal.
So this time around, I didn’t do anything I didn’t know I couldn’t do. I did know, in fact, that I could do it. I just didn’t want to - not by myself. So it was a step forward.
Perhaps, in the future, other classes will seem less daunting, now that I've pushed myself just a little farther than I might have done in the past. Perhaps, in the future, I might finally don that swimsuit and take a water class. I may feel damned uncomfortable, and I may be out of shape when I begin. But you have to start somewhere.
Sometimes taking that first step is all you need.
Namaste.
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