This is a quick write before I venture off to a Vinyasa flow community drop-class in Encinitas over by the Self-Help realization center. My favorite yoga teacher suggested to me last year, “You should take advantage of the weekly specials all over town at all of the Yoga studios and check them out.”
I am so thrilled I listened to her. Each week for the last six weeks I have been bee-popping my yoga practice all over this community. What I am learning is that it’s really good to try different studios. I am so glad I didn’t just stayed nestled in at my gym with my yoga teachers I fell comfortable with already.
Last year this very month I started yoga. I decided to hang up my running shoes and go inward, not really thinking much of what I was doing.
What happened though, changed me instantly. I found and discovered true joy in the practice of all types of yoga. The benefits of taking yoga from a gym is that there are many different teachers with different styles. I know this helped me grow much faster than if I had just stayed at one studio and learned their techniques.
I have even had some suggest that practicing yoga at a gym verses a yoga studio doesn’t really count. I know from
my own experience this is not true. In fact, I would suggest if you are new to yoga and you do have a gym membership to explore your yoga classes there first. It will be a safe environment where you feel comfortable and free to grow.
I know last year I would not have been ready for the type of yoga I am doing now. I am proud to hang with the Hot Yoga groupies, the Ashtanga yogi lovers and just the regular sit down and lets get restorative yoga.
I have also developed my own practice at home that keeps me feeling alive and excited. I can pop up into a tripod headstand, a regular headstand, and handstand for over a minute against the wall. This may not sound like much, but for a woman of 44, I feel like a giddy school girl that just did her first cartwheel on the playground.
So what is my advice to you? Check around where you live and take advantage of the yoga specials in your neighborhood. You won’t regret it. It’s like visiting the inside of another secret world in the world of yoga. You will feel like an outsider looking in, while you feel fabulous in ‘downward dog.’ I would just suggest you do a little research before you you go so you know what to expect and so you can also find a space. In the smaller private yoga studios, the spots go faster. So don’t be late!
Which reminds me to sign off on my next adventure down by the beach. Enjoy your own practice and learn how to grow by expanding your yoga circle.
Cheers & hugs, M
