blissed out
Posted on Jun 15th, 2008
by 
romanlily
romanlily
I went to my favorite yoga class today for the first time in several months.
The teacher of this class has been teaching this Sunday afternoon yoga class for years now. I first wandered into her class at the local YMCA some time in 2001, when my view of the world was pretty narrow. At the time, I was interested in yoga from a purely physical perspective. I remember scoffing quietly to myself when she briefly touched on the concept of chakras during one class. Not very yogic, I know.
Over the years I've come to see her as a woman of rather profound wisdom. She practices wicca and subtly weaves a pagan philosophy into her teaching. It's always understated and, I must say, rather intriguing. But it's not just her spiritual view of the universe that I have grown to admire. It's also the fact that she fought a valiant battle with some very nasty cancer around '03-'04, and now practices yoga with a titanium hip due to complications from the cancer treatment.
She has an amazing spirit and imparts a powerful joy as she teaches, despite all the terrible stuff she's been through.
So, as usual, today in the first half of class, we did all kinds of challenging poses. I'm not very good at these poses, but that's another story for another time. And then for second half of this class we went into savasana.
I've read stories over the years from yogis and spiritual teachers about reaching a place of bliss in deep meditation. I don't know quite what others in the class went through today, but I can say that I experienced a profound deepening and settling deep inside during the savasana segment.
I did 20 or 30 minutes of deep breathing. I only followed part of Kathy's instructions during the meditation -- for the most part, I was riding my own wave. When I slowly came out of the pose at the end of class, I felt like I was waking up after eight hours of deep and refreshing sleep. The calm and groundedness I felt in that moment has stayed with me all afternoon.
Kind of wonderful, really.
(Side note: I'm glad to be writing about this now because it's reminding me to take some ibuprofen before bed tonight. I may be feeling all enlightened right now, but I know that my muscles are going to be wickedly sore tomorrow.)
Access: Public
breathing
September 2008 
Be sure to drink plenty of water, too. What a wonderful experience! I hope that peaceful feeling stays with you all week.