Today, I did some yoga. It’s not the first time I’ve done yoga; when I first moved to Brighton I did a bit of yoga at the Buddhist Centre, but I was a bit intimidated by some of the women there who seemed to see it as a competition. I was stiff and very unfit, the last thing I needed was some woman throwing me filthy looks when I was struggling. There was also the time I tried very hard not to giggle after said woman accidentally ‘let herself go’. It’s not good for karma or meditation. I’m just not very good at exercising in classes- I prefer to work at home, with a DVD in front of me. That way, if I mess up, I’m the only person who’s seen me fall over.
I am struggling hard at the moment with winter blues (as much as I love winter, I find it often leads to me becoming depressed, something which needs to be dealt with, if I’m able to) and I am trying hard to look after myself through physical and mental means. I’m often less successful than I would like to be, but I’m doing my best to counteract this. One way is through the jive lessons I mentioned a few weeks ago, which start next week- hooray! The other is that I’m having a go at the aforementioned yoga.
I’m literally starting from the beginning with ‘Basic Yoga For Dummies’, which is a bit annoying as a DVD, but shows the basic positions so that even someone like me can get them quite easily. I’ve already set myself a goal of improving my Downward Dog. I did, however, find it was pretty difficult to be centred on my Tree position when a small black and white cat is demanding food and nudging me…
The after effects, if achy, are actually quite remarkable. I feel relaxed and chilled out. I have no doubt that I will actually sleep well tonight for the first time in ages. I’m hoping that I can keep up with this, but I have no idea whether I will ever bolster the courage to go to a class! I’m now probably going to obsessively search the internet for reviews of other yoga dvds to add to the one I have.
Unless I get bored pretty quickly. Which could happen.
Stephanie Pomfrett 