It’s been 15 days since I’ve done any yoga or exercise and today was the day to begin again. This morning I went to fit club and the workout was good, but my e-BMI (Body Mass Index) was amazing – after 15 days napping and sitting. It was 29.3. I’ve never fallen below 29.7. I was ecstatic because I thought I’d have to start all over again from 30. I’m inching toward an e-BMI of 24, where I started out three years ago. (I think that will take a full year – I have a lot of body mass to move.) So Fit Club was a positive experience. Now for yoga at 4.30.
I came home and took a nap, ate well, and hydrated. 4:00 I headed for class. You know where my mind was going: This is going to be awful. I won’t be able to bend. I’ll have trouble with the heat, and on and on my mind sprinted from one excuse to the other why this is a bad idea to try to do both things on the first day back.
The room was extra hot. There were over thirty people in class. I sat on my mat with sweat pouring down my face before we even stood up. My earlier worries were being validated. In came my beloved teacher, Meg. She knows my story. She won’t let anything bad happen to me. Pranayama breathing went well, so did half-moon. Then I bent forward and smushed my forehead to my knees in forward bend and it happened. I had to cough. Do you know you can’t cough with your chest pressed against your thighs? No, it just doesn’t work. We unfolded to stand back up and I started coughing. I was so afraid I was disturbing the peace or that people wouldn’t know I was all better and they’d think I was contagious. Second set wasn’t much better. Next came awkward. I regained control. I breathed. I became still. The cough disappeared and the rest of the class was flawless. In savasana I was amazed at how quickly the stillness returned. I spent close to three years on that mat learning stillness and 15 days away proved I actually mastered it when it enveloped me so easily once again.
Walking out, I felt like a million bucks. I should know enough not to listen to the silly things my mind yammers at me. That’s my new spring thing. Shut down the yammering when it isn’t productive.
And so, as another day goes by, sometimes you just have to begin – again, and …I have written.
Fact: you can’t cough in this position.
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