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Wow, it's a good thing...

...that wasn't a resolution. Whew! I did not do the planned ten minutes a day of yoga. I thought about doing it for several days, but I didn't actually follow through. Amazing how little thinking about yoga affects your flexibility and health.

Today

So I'm not one for believing in my ability to actually keep up with a New Year's Resolution (NYR)* but this has been brewing a bit even before the dreaded end of the year. I am, by golly, going to start doing yoga again. My preferred poison is Bikram yoga, that being, a sequence of 26 positions (each performed twice) done in a heated room.

The only issue here is that it's 'spensive and it's also hoity-toity, at least the only one I'm aware of in my little big town. Although, to be fair, maybe that's the wrong derogatory adjective. My actual experience was that the yogi teaching the class, before class, stood in my way of signing in with the utmost disregard while he flirted with a student. He just stood there, blocking my access to the desk, as if I wasn't standing right beside him while he hit on this girl. (He reminds me, in retrospect, of White Goodman in Dodgeball.) Then, at the beginning of the class, he asked if there were new people and got my name, then said, "I might forget your name so I'll just call you Red Shirt." He didn't say it very apologetically, either, just like "Yeah, well, you may not be important enough for me to remember so I'm not even going to try." He then proceeded to forget, not just my name, not just the color of my shirt, but my entire existence. From my experiences at other places, it was more than a bit surprising that he didn't once acknowledge my participation in the class. I might have mentioned his weird behavior to the owner--except he was the owner. Needless to say, I'm not eager to return.

But, there's nothing keeping me from getting going here at home. I have a Bikram book with all the poses in it (which is good because it's been awhile and I've forgotten the sequence and some aspects of them). I bought a little digital recorder so I can make a recording to go along with, because I don't want to have to keep checking the book. I think I'll also get a space heater, because I really do need to have a heated room or I won't make much progress, I don't think.

If I can just get some momentum up and keep it up, I'll be fine. I love the way I feel after doing this yoga, I love how it helps me want to eat well (and eat light) and to drink more water. I loved how my posture improved and I felt lighter and stronger after just a few weeks--and that was when I was only going two or three times a week.

This isn't a resolution, it just is: I'm going to do at least 10 minutes of yoga a day. Tonight I did the first two poses, starting with the standing deep breathing (Pranayama series) and the half-moon pose with hands to fee pose (Ardha-Chandrasana and Pada-Hastasana). Even just from those two I felt this rush of energy, it's wild what a difference it makes.

And I'm going to blog about it, here.

*There must be some mean acronym to go with that... except Never Gonna Happen would be NGH.