Separated at Birth

It’s January 3, 2013. The holidays are behind us, there’s lots of cold weather still ahead of us and I wake up everyday feeling the responsibility of keeping myself well.

Today, I did something new in that effort. I attended my first ever yoga class. The class was small, three other women, me and the instructor. The room was calm, almost dark with relaxing music as though we were there for a massage. Our instructor, Mimi, was obviously experienced. She explained everything with ease and shared philosophy about yoga and life throughout the class.

There were three different times during the one hour class that I felt ready to fall asleep. Finally calm. Entirely peaceful. That was a beautiful thing.

Throughout the class, my pelvis felt stable and strong. There was one point near the end of class that my right SI joint had a twinge but I changed my position a bit and it stopped. The only other thing I had to change was when we did the plank. I’m not quite able to hold a forearms to feet plank as long as we were asked to. I can last about 30 seconds in that position at home right now and that’s pretty tough. It didn’t hurt, but I was shaking a lot and it felt as though gravity was pulling my pelvis toward the floor. I’ll keep practicing and hopefully I’ll make it next time.

I left the class feeling alert, strong and excited. That excitement lead me to find the website for the Yoga Health Foundation. The image included above is from that site and will take you there with a click. The New To Yoga page includes the following:

Yoga isn’t just a physical exercise program. It is a scientific system designed to generate greater clarity and harmony in life. With a regular practice, individuals often notice a stronger, slimmer and more flexible body, in addition to a mentally sharper, more patient and relaxed sense of self.

That sounds like just what I need, “more patient and relaxed.” Just ask my husband.

Part of what made today so exciting is my “history” with yoga. I tried to find a yoga class once before. When we still lived in Omaha and I was newly expecting, several friends recommended prenatal yoga. I called three different places looking for information about a prenatal class and got no response. I guess I didn’t want it bad enough. And everyday I wonder if that was the biggest mistake of my life so far. Would a more flexible body have helped or hurt me during labor? Would it have saved my family from the chaos, pain and struggle of our first 10 months together?

I can never know the answers to those questions. I can only move forward. I can only make good decisions to keep myself well and keep getting better, stronger and, hopefully, “more patient and relaxed.”