So, I've been doing yoga for about a year now. What have I learned?
1) Forget my feet and shoulders. I hold all my tension in my hips.
2) That's bad.
3) It's also why I like sleeping on my stomach, which helps me release the clench.
4) Backbends come pretty naturally to me.
5) Forward bends are more of a challenge.
6) Bony, high-arched feet can be a real pain. Literally.
7) We never should have lost our tails. Our tailbones do nothing but get into mischief without a good strong tail to anchor them. Plus, it'd come in handy during Tree Pose.
8) If your core muscles have been napping through life, they are not going to enjoy being woken up. ("What the hell is this? What do you mean I have to move? You don't understand, I belong to an American midwesterner in this lifetime. She wears shoes. She sits in chairs. She sleeps on soft mattresses. She doesn't need me! --WHAT? She's in a YOGA STUDIO? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!")
9) Take care of your thymus, people. Open up those chests and upper backs. Let your thymuses breathe.
10) Real yoga has nothing to do with the big names. It lives in studios you've never heard of, often in towns so small and hidden that you've never heard of them either.
11) Yoga should be a challenge to American preferences. We like fast results--look for a yoga that goes slow. We like variety--look for a yoga which works the same asanas over and over again, so you learn what they have to teach. We like to feel we're making effort--look for a yoga which teaches surrender too. We like speed--look for a yoga which takes the time to allow each asana to unfold and deepen. We like outward form--look for a yoga which is about inner function.
12) Everything, everything, everything comes back to the breath. Find someone who can truly teach you how to breathe--not just repeat myths. Find that, and you almost don't need anything else.
13) But you'll seek it anyhow, because once everything has finished coming back to the breath, the breath then leads outward to everything else.
14) Always say Namaste.
