Inspired by two best friends who did a
fasting retreat to take care of their health, I went back to yoga after a long
hiatus. I decided to tune up my body before I return to Atlanta to teach at Candler
School of Theology in January.
The small yoga studio can accommodate 8-10 people. Yesterday’s class was quite full with 8 people.
The teacher Joy (not her real name) was a middle-aged woman.
A woman in her forties came in a few minutes
before the class and had tears in her eyes. Another woman in the class apparently
knew her and began talking to her. The crying woman then told the class that
she was sad because she has a family member who is sick.
On my! I didn’t come to yoga to hear family
tragedies….I came here to practice.
As she apologized for her crying, one woman
said, “Crying is cleansing. There’s no need to be ashamed.”
Some of the women in the group clearly knew
each other and offered support.
We began by practicing different breathing
exercises: three-part yoga breath, belly breathing, and breathing in through
the left nostril and breathing out through the other side, etc.
This was to warm up and after 10-15 minutes,
the body felt quite warm as the internal organs were massaged. You massage the
organs by expanding and contracting the diaphragm.
As we continued to do different yoga poses,
the teacher sometimes became chatty and there were friendly responses from the
room.
I HATE to listen to banter in yoga, good-natured
or otherwise. I came here to relax.
I realized others might have come to seek
community, especially during the holidays, with so much to do and so much
pressure.
Joy turned out to be a very good teacher.
She offered some of the best comments on the pelvis I have ever heard.
While teaching one pose, she said: “Move
your pelvis freely. Turn it and try to put in at a different angle.”
Then she said, women were not allowed to
move our pelvises freely. Patriarchy wants to control our pelvises. Wow, so true!
Later, when we were doing the Warrior I
pose, she told us to square our pelvis, so that the navel would face the wall.
She said our pelvis needs to be strong and
pliable—strong so that we can stand up and pliable so that a baby can come out
from the birth canal.
Then as if catching herself, she said not
every woman is a mother, but the belly is the seat of creativity. We may not give
birth to babies, but we can give births to new things. We can all be creative
in our lives.
As we were doing the baby pose, Joy asked us
to relax all parts of the body. She said much of unresolved emotions are stored
in the pelvis (in addition to other areas of the body). Contemplative exercises
allow us to get in touch with the still body, beneath the thinking and feeling
bodies, so that we can get in touch with these unresolved emotions.
This was such a good reminder for me, a teacher
of spirituality.
Joy told the group to listen to our bodies.
Listen to what the body was telling you today. We could modify the poses to
accommodate our needs.
The body is not supposed to suffer because
of doing yoga. Instead, yoga is to ease suffering in the future.
After doing yoga for an hour and 15 minutes,
I felt my body was more relaxed and my joints more flexible.
As we concluded the practice, Joy asked us
to dedicate the practice to ourselves or to someone else. I dedicated it to my
brother. Joy said the usual saying: “May all beings be protected. May all beings be free of suffering…..”
When we said namaste, I was grateful to the
company of yogis who practiced with me.
The woman who cried at the beginning stayed
behind and apologized to Joy for crying and disturbing the class.
I walked up to her and consoled her, “I met
you for the first time. But when you shared your story, I felt honored to be
invited to be part of your community. There are times in our lives that we need
even strangers for support…”
Then out of the blue, I began telling her
that I have a brother who is going to have surgery for a brain tumor the
following week. . .and started crying.
She embraced me and tried to offer some kind
words.
As I walked back home, I thought what a
wonderful yoga class I had. My feelings for the crying woman has softened during the short span of the class.
Doing yoga together is to create community—whether
we chat during the class or not. The silent assembled bodies, the rhythm of the
movements, and the commitment to support each other in our practice are gestures
of building community.
The holidays are hard times. People may not
have loved ones to share the holidays with. People may hate the big family dinners,
for they have little in common with their relatives and don’t know what to say
to them. People may have loved ones who have died and can’t share the joy of
the season.
Do something during the hard times. We can choose
to do something to ease suffering in the future. I am glad that I went to yoga
that morning.