In Class Yoga.

Class: Yoga

Date: September 22nd, 2010

Time & Location: 12:45pm In class

On Wednesday, we had a guest yogi, Dianna Polli, come in and teach us Bikram Yoga. The whole class spread their individual mats across the room and waited for Dianna to start the practice. The whole practice was extreme stretching of the muscles. There were some poses and bends that I found very demanding and difficult to complete. Throughout the class, there was a lot of emphasis on breath. I also found that balance was a big part of the practice as well. I found myself falling all over the place constantly, struggling to get into positions.

Dianna was a good teacher, but I found it hard to follow her teachings when she didn't show us herself. We were all just trying to decipher what her explanations were. Another thing I didn't like about Bikram was the fact that we could not close our eyes. When doing yoga, I normally close my eyes and try to relax. I personally found Bikram more of a physical practice than a spiritual one, but it was a good experience.

Zen.

Class: Yoga

Date: September 28th, 2010

Time & Location: 7pm at Lakeside Lodge

I've gone three additional times between my last blog post and this one, but those are undocumented and weren't written about. So, we'll continue on from here. I arrived to Lakeside around 7pm, with my baby blue yoga mat and my friend Dave trodding along beside me. It's the same basic set up and atmosphere every week. The room is dimly lit as soft calming music plays in the background. The temperature is normally comfortable and easy to exercise in. The one thing that has changed is the amount of men that are participating. Over the past couple weeks, I've noticed more and more guys showing up to practice.

We started off with basic breathing techniques while sitting Indian style. We spent a lot of time in children's pose. We also repeatedly did an exercise where the tips of our fingers were stretched out in front of us, and we had to lift our backside's up. After a couple sets, I felt the blood rushing to my head and I began to feel very dizzy. I'm pretty used to these routines by now. The instructor follows the same basic routine each week, adding a few additional things here and there. I found everything a bit more challenging this week because I've been kinda out of shape and not going to ultimate frisbee practice.

The teacher doesn't speak very loudly during practice. She'll just give instructions such as, "Walk your feet back towards your head and hold it." There have been a few times where I heard her mutter something about asana positions. She doesn't encourage any sort of chanting or sounds.

Next week I'm going to try and go to a session off campus. There's a lot of disturbances with the yoga class on campus. First off, it's right next to the kitchen of Papa John's. During the last session, the workers were blasting music the whole time and we could barely hear her. Another distraction is all the kids that are waiting in line to get food at Papa John's. They "accidentally" press the handicap button that opens up the doors to the room we practice in. It's really distracting and causes everyone to lose their train of thought. I really hope to get more out of these classes throughout the semester.

Class: Yoga

Date: September 15th, 2010

Time & Location: 7pm at Lakeside Lodge

I had a pretty disappointing morning, consisting of a quiz that I wasn't really ready for and an ultimate frisbee practice that ended up being called off. In the back of my mind I hoped that my first yoga session would bring me the epic relaxation that I craved so badly on this particular day. My friend Dave volunteered to accompany me. I know, It surprised me too. We showed up to Lakeside about five minutes before the lesson was supposed to start. After entering I immediately noticed the abundance of yoga mats, quickly reminding me of what I was lacking. Luckily, my complex director Lugenia was there and got some for me and a few of the other students.

I can honestly say that I didn't have too many preconceived notions because I didn't know what to expect. I didn't think It was gonna be too difficult or challenging, and I'm always at lakeside so the setting wasn't new to me either, but then... she turned off the lights. Soon after some very soothing music began to play in the background. That's when I knew this wasn't gonna be quite like I expected. There were about thirteen women and two men in the class, all varying in sizes.

The teacher sat up front on a blanket close to the stage, and the rest of us staggered closer to the middle and rear of the room. She was a petite Caucasian woman in her late 20's. She was soft spoken and came across as knowledgeable. The whole lesson was basically a lot of stretching and breathing techniques. We started off standing, reaching to touch our toes. We then sat Indian style and and did some stretching that way. She kept emphasizing the importance of breathing and relaxing our muscles. All in all, it was more of a physical reward than a mental one. I found it extremely stress relieving and It was a nice way for me to get away from the demands of my day, but It really did a lot for my body. My goal for the rest of my weekly yoga sessions is to really get something out of this, mentally, emotionally, and physically.

-Claire.