Let's end today's practice with three "Ohms"

So for the past three weeks, I've been going to a yoga class at Soel Boutique/It's Yoga on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I told myself I couldn't blog about it until I'd done it consistently for a while but I think three weeks counts. The thing about it is it's at 6am at the Riverwoods, which is about 13 minutes away. That means I'm getting up at 5:30 am in the dark and FREEZING COLD winter morning. I had to find a schedule that wouldn't interfere with the family at all. Most days when I get home at 7:15am they aren't even awake yet (well except for Brenden of course). But turns out I love it. A few years ago when I tried to follow in my sisters' footsteps and run, I would go for a run and feel proud of myself afterwards, but every step I kept thinking how much I hated it. But yoga I love while I'm doing it. Of course it's a little new-agey and there are some snooty ladies there, but that just makes for good people watching. Here are some things I love about it:

• I love the pace and the tone - I love that it's slow and dark and quiet. That's a nice environment for me and a break from the noise of my daily life.
• I love being barefoot and I love comfy yoga pants
  
• I love spending the last 5 minutes in "corpse pose" lying lifeless on the ground trying to completely clear my mind of everything.
• I love that every pose has a beginner, medium, and advanced version so I can decide how much I want to challenge myself.
• I love the workout. I sweat and am sore afterwards and feel like I got a real full-body exercise. And if I work really hard I can burn about 500 calories (according to some calculators) which is better than I could personally do running.
  
• I love the non-competitive nature of yoga - there is no judgement and no comparing your progress to others
• I love stretching and working on my flexibility - I think this will help me age "gracefully" (as I'm facing my 32nd birthday next week it's time for me to start thinking about that, you know)
• I love the slow steady breathing exercises - they help me with my patience sometimes and I know when I was going through natural childbirth with Oliver (5 years ago?!) it helped me get through that.
• I love driving there and back by myself and listening to what I want to listen to (mostly Dr. Laura podcasts)
  
• I get a kick out of some of the terminology: bring your hands to your hearts center, put your knee to the earth, take your breath out of the body and bring it back inward, set your intention for the practice, wrap your peace fingers around your big toe, and of course the best is "let's end the practice with three ohms" - at which point in prayer position the whole class chants "ohm" very slowly three times. It's just so different and foreign from my regular life that it ends up being a fun break and the chance to pretend I'm someone different for a while.

Thanks to Scott for being supportive and sleeping in. Thanks to Intuit for kicking in on the membership fees as a "fitness incentive bonus." Now I've committed to a whole year contract so let's see if I can keep it up.