I knew it would be dangerous to talk about a hot room triumph, but I still proceeded. In the typical yoga tradition of maintaining balance – I got served. After teaching a delightful 8 a.m. class last Sunday, I stayed to take the 10 a.m. as I usually do. Feeling good, I set myself up in the hot corner of the room in between two rock star students and told them I “wanted a good butt kick class!” The yoga gods heard that, and kick my butt they did. Actually it was my favorite Midwestern teacher, but I digress.
I plowed through a tough standing series taking, just a little pause to stand out a smidge of Standing Bow Pulling Pose. There is something about the floor series, and that first Savasana that allow your body to relax, but also allows any signals you’ve been ignoring or suppressing to catch up with you. And catch up they did. By the end of class I was laying out every other set and felt nauseated. Sure enough, after the lights went out and the teacher left, some of the Ultima I’d been drinking made an appearance on my mat. (I swear I didn’t drink too much and guzzle!) Anyway, it was gross.
As a teacher this is the kind of class I try and help students avoid. I encourage them to rest when they need a rest, have some water or gatorade as needed and to take care of themselves. I encourage everyone to stay in the room (unless, of course, one of the 4 P’s strike) and get used to the heat and still get a nice sweat. Sometimes, even when you know how to take care of and pace yourself, your body just has a message it needs to get to you. In my case — I was doing too much. Not just in the hot room but in my every day life and activities. I had picked up extra classes to teach and extra shifts at the library, I’ve running more, walking the dogs more, working outside more and maintaining my regular practice. That is a lot more going on and my body was exhausted. The last thing it needed was for me to put it through the wringer of a rough class.
We rarely take the time to relax or take it easy when we are feeling good. We wait until we are at the point of trying to avoid getting vomit in our hair to actually take a step back. We never stop to analyze our body when things feel good, instead, we continue to push until something snaps. Learning how to search your mind for how your body feels and what it needs is a different matter and a different way of taking care of yourself. It also requires battle with the Ego, and letting your mind navigate through what your body needs and allowing the Ego to accept that over what it wants.
Backbends and Bookends 