Spoiled Yogi

Beach Bum by ejrodefer featuring flip flop shoes

I live in paradise. I’m a short drive from some of the most beautiful beaches in the country (maybe even the world). It’s gorgeous, sunny, warm, and friendly everywhere you go here. (Trust me, I’m not bragging..) Do you know what do I spend the majority of my time doing? Sitting in front of my computer, of course ….

I want to sit in front of my computer less this summer. This is what I’d like to accomplish instead.

 1. Practice yoga by the beach.
 2. Buy a boogie board and a beach umbrella. (And learn to use them both!)
 3. Read my entire stack of magazines.
 4. Try 3 new yoga teachers.
 5. Worry less about things I can’t control.
 6. Buy a plant for my porch.
 7. Drink more pina coladas.
 8. Spend more time with my husband and pets.
 9. Meet friends for coffee/tea/lunch more.
10. Make more time to do things that inspire me to create.
11. Go to the dentist.
12. Sew a dress.
13. Fly a kite.
14. Read more books.
15. Take more pictures.

What’s on your list for the summer?

Of all the fitness trends that have popped up in the last few years (Zumba, Crossfit, P90X) none have been more intriguing to me than barre fitness classes. I thought it would take me back to the days when I’d put on tights and a leotard and practiced twirling and stuff (I took ballet when I was about 5-7 so twirling around and dressing up for recitals is really all I remember).

If you had the same perception about barre classes that I did… be warned! This is not like the ballet class you remembered from your childhood. No, no, no. It involves squeezing a ball between your thighs for hours–it seems like hours, anyway. And there are weights! (For the record, I don’t do weights.) It gets worse. No one wears a tutu or even a leotard. I did NOT feel like Natalie Portman in Black Swan… but that’s probably a good thing.

When I got past the shock that this was indeed a fitness class that would kick my ass, I learned a few things about myself and (of course) my yoga practice.

It’s OK to focus on your exterior sometimes. They were shameless about the fact that they were doing this to look better in their bikinis. You never hear, “I hope the instructor is feeling fat today,” prior to a yoga class. Nor would a yoga teacher ever say to you, “You’re so tiny! I’m sure you’ll be just fine in this class.” Hmm… I often get the impression that people go to yoga classes because they want to look better in a bikini, but they’d never say that. It was strangely refreshing to be surrounded by women who were totally honest with themselves and each other about their motives. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good and working toward that goal.

You use totally different muscles to “pulse” than you use to hold yourself in one position. It was interesting to look around the studio and see that other people in class seemed to struggle with the parts of class that involved holding yourself in one position–Plank, Utkatasana, etc. That part was no problem for me, since that’s my practice.. but all the lifting and lowering by one inch had me shaking like a leaf within just a couple of seconds. It became very clear to me that my muscles were not accustomed to working in that way.

My back is kind of awesome. This studio had mirrors everywhere. I think the idea is that if you can watch yourself you can correct your own form and get a better work out. I’ve been practicing yoga for the better part off a decade and have never actually SEEN my back body working (few yoga studios have mirrors). This class changed that. I liked what I saw — I had no idea that my back looks so strong and defined! I know I have my yoga practice to thank for that.

Next, I think I’ll try Zumba.

Have you ever tried a ballet barre fitness class? Did you reach any of the same conclusions I did?

I went to a workshop for teachers today, and I learned many great things about how to communicate the practice of yoga in a more meaningful way. (I’ll share more about the workshop later.) But I also noticed something that’s been bugging me about yoga teacher workshops for.. well, as long as I’ve gone to them. When a group of yoga teacher get together to talk teaching techniques, there’s usually also at least some energy given to criticizing other teachers (and broadcasting how much more competent WE are).

In part of the workshop we were asked to voice our personality strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. For the weaknesses, a common theme emerged: Insecurity about making mistakes. When a brave soul spoke up about how she beats herself up when she said left instead of right, every head in the room nodded with understanding. We’ve all been there!

Later, the conversation took at turn for the worse.

Several people talked about their experiences in other people’s classes. There wasn’t enough instruction. There was too much instruction. This one teacher would NOT shut up… Yada yada yada.*

I bit my tongue.

All I could think is that there’s no wonder we beat ourselves up over our teaching mistakes when we sit through this kind of critique of other teachers. I mean, come on! That’s one of us you’re talking about! God (and anyone who’s suffered through one of my classes) knows I’ve made a TON of mistakes in my teaching efforts.

I have a better idea. The next time I’m in a yoga class and I can tell that the teacher is struggling. I’m not going to roll my eyes and make a note to bring it up in my next teacher workshop. I’m going to smile at her. I’m going to devote my Sun Salutations to her. I’m going to look around and see that even though this might not be working for me, someone else in the room is hearing exactly the message they need to hear in this moment. And when class is over, I’m going to make a point to tell her how much I appreciate her efforts–even if she didn’t teach her class the way I would have.

*To be fair, the critique segment was very short compared to others I’ve endured.

Yoga is staying in Savasana even when your dog is licking your face and your husband comes home from the grocery store with cupcakes …

Yoga is learning how to let go of tension you don’t need in your body, then learning how to let go of tensions you don’t need in your life…

Yoga is failing a hundred thousand times at a pose, but practicing it anyway with faith that eventually, when the time is right, you’ll get it …

Yoga is being OK with the fact that the time might never be right in this lifetime …

Yoga is about fooling yourself into believing you are actually calm and centered until it actually starts to be true (if only just for a moment) …

Yoga is genuinely loving and appreciating the feeling of breathing oxygen into your lungs …

Yoga is …. (It’s your turn! Comment below!)

Stress is stupid.

I’ve been paying close attention to the things that stress me out lately. What I’ve noticed is that I get in a tizzy over things that don’t actually matter–a typo on a blog post or press release, failing to reach some arbitrary goal at work, not meeting some family member’s expectation. These things that I get SO upset about don’t put someone’s life on the line. They don’t threaten someone’s job. They don’t even cost a lot of money.

So why on earth do I get so stressed out about things that I can’t control and that don’t matter anyway? I don’t know… but I’ve decided not to do it any more. That’s right. I’m opting out. I can’t control many, many things in life, but I can control the way I react to them. So the next time something trivial seems like a life-or-death matter when it’s really not that big of a deal I’m going to close my eyes, breathe deep, and try to see it as an objective observer. And if that doesn’t work, I’m going to work it all out on my yoga mat.

What dumb things do you stress about? How do you put it into perspective? What do you do to