During graduate school in 2005 I led weekly Stomp classes on stair master machines in San Diego. They were intense, but short and putting the music playlists together for them was so fun for me.
After class one day, two sisters invited me to stretch in the sauna with them. Being the social butterfly that I was at that time (nicknamed by one of my professors) I soon found myself sweating with these two friendly gals during and after class every week. It became a ritual.
That’s when I first noticed the satisfaction associated with the physiological feedback of sweat. Surely I accomplished something if I sweat that much! And now I also realize, there’s a feeling of release. Of letting go. At a cellular level. Literally and metaphysically. Every week these days, my hot yoga teachers remind us of all the benefits of original hot yoga. It keeps me going back, because I know it, but I can also feel it.
But, it wasn’t so easy to get access to those benefits until this year.
Yoga attempted to enter my life many times over the decades, but never stayed for more than a class length. It was too slow for my fast paced 20 and 30 year old. But, during my second pregnancy, in my mid 30’s, slow was exactly what I wanted and needed. Yoga was a place for movement when my larger than usual body (and grieving heart) just couldn’t get out for a walk or ski that winter the way I usually do with ease.
The yoga room felt like the escape the mountains provide. Being on the mat transported me back to the open freedom of traveling through Southeast Asia.
A friend wise beyond her years once told me that we can cultivate the same experience inside from adventuring while sitting still at home. It’s the same body, the same system. I seek to live my life in simplicity these days and find what she was telling me about.
We don’t have to go far to feel good. It’s all right inside.
But hot yoga. That was literally a stretch for me. It sounded too hot. And smelly? All those sweaty people in the same room. It took many invites (and free trials and discounts) to get me there. Unfortunately, low back and left hip complaints that hadn’t been around for years made me take pause after my first month of regular participation in flow based classes and kept me away for a year, but with the next free trial, choosing a class with a slower pace remedied the issue.
Something in me really wanted the hot yoga room to work for me.
I chose a payment plan that gave me four sessions to be used within a 4 week period. This stressed me out at first, ensuring I used them amongst the variables that would try to get in the way.
Powder day. Chest cold. Moon time. Just don’t feel like it.
Yet, the desire to get my moneys worth every month is what kept me consistent enough months in a row to get from the Action stage of change into Maintenance. (for all you behavior change lovers out there)
Still, I avoided one class. Original Hot Yoga. 90 minutes. No music. The same postures every week. It sounded grueling.
But now, it’s my favorite class and my body craves it.
So, to wrap up this story and provide you with a take home message….
11 months after a consistent weekly practice, I walked in the front door of the hot yoga studio one Wednesday morning and was congratulated for 15 classes. What!?!?! No. Not just 15!!! I knew I had been there more than that.
When I looked down at the sticker she handed me, sure enough, it said FIFTY. I knew it. I could feel it in my mind, my body and my spirit. And it was still astounding. To see that number.
And so, the take home message….
You never know what is going to change your life, until you try something new for long enough to allow it.
