Why do you do Yoga?

Queridos cincos pesos, we first met, reluctantly, in Mexico. Since then, you've grown on me. Now it's time for us to say "Adios". I'm headed back to work in a week and I have some pencil skirts I'd like to squeeze into (and not look like Joan from MadMen!)...

Weight loss? Toning? Improve flexibility? Calm? 5 dang minutes to yourself? An instructor (Diann) once asked rhetorically during class, "Why do we do yoga?" Cheekily, I replied, "So we can shave in the shower..." But really, why do YOU do yoga?

When you enter a yoga class for the first time, you go with some sort of purpose: Hey, you're going to check out this "Om" stuff; a physician recommended it as part of your physical therapy; your friend who does yoga looks amazing; you've been spying on the class through the window while you run on the treadmill, and everyone looks happier leaving an hour of yoga than you do leaving a 40 minute run...

The reasons are countless, and it doesn't matter why you "try" it the first time. What matters is your reason for coming back. What keeps you returning to the mat, again, and again, and for me this summer, again? (obviously, since those 5 pounds from my vacation are still hanging around, I'm not doing it for weight loss benefits! And since I still don't look like Gwyneth Paltrow, I'm not doing it for toning, either! Then again, I do have a healthy appetite which she doesn't seem to have...)

I attended a class last Tuesday morning - it was an 8:30 class, and while countless people wake far earlier than 8:30 to begin a practice, my joints weren't quite lubricated enough yet, and I was hoping for a little gentle flexing and stretching, building up to some movement, but nothing as intense as one of Diann's or Josh's classes. The instructor, whom I remember from last year, opened the practice with an almost diatribe on how she expected people to participate in her class. "Sitting one out" if you didn't like the pose wasn't going to cut it in her practice that morning. She expected everyone to try and take it as far as he/she could because that's the intent and spirit of yoga (she's right, but was this the time?) It was borderline lecture on yogic theory, and while she may have been trying to educate us on a subject she obviously loves and knows a great deal about, 8:30 in the morning at a gym is not the time or the place. This went on for the first 10 minutes of the class, and she ended by impressing upon us on the need to clean up after ourselves, should we have to leave class early to head out to work or pick up children from childcare. Really? We only get 1 hour, and you've spent the first 10 minutes lecturing us, so I don't think we'll be ducking out early. Then, almost as if to make up for lost time, she launched into a rapid fire practice that didn't have many poses, but some were quite challenging for the beginners who she felt were present in enough numbers that needed "enlightening" at the beginning of class.

My point in telling this story, other than to get a minor gripe off my chest, is that I have been practicing yoga for a long time, and this instructor is hardly going to scare me off with her style. Someone walking in off his/her treadmill, however, might not have the patience for the "mumbo jumbo". I will be back, again, and again, and again (in fact, I'll be on my mat later this morning...), because I have my own purpose in doing yoga. The truth is, it is therapeutic to me (my mind, my joints, my spirit), I am proud of and love the growth in my practice I have accomplished this summer, and now that I'm headed back to teaching in just a week, I have no idea how I'm going to keep attending classes so ardently!

Yes, in the back of my mind, I'm constantly reminding myself that with patience, I'll get that long, lean yoga body - but the fact that it has yet to materialize is proof that I'm on my bright yellow mat for a different reason entirely. Is it those fleeting moments to myself? Is it the chance for the world to stop and move more slowly by? Is it a chance for me to feel the edges of my skin? It doesn't matter, because it's all of these and more. With every new practice, another reason arises, and that's why I'll be back...

Namaste.