Yin & Yang

A few days ago, I chatted with an acquaintance about yoga. She had taken a class or two in the past and was excited about learning more. However, when she went to the class, she felt out of place. Disoriented. Out of sorts. She wasn’t familiar with the Sanskrit names for poses or even the “regular” names.

I could relate. Two weeks ago, I decided to check out a kickboxing studio in my town, CKO Kickboxing. While I love practicing yoga, I was also feeling a bit blah with my practice. I view yoga as my spiritual practice, not as exercise. It’s definitely challenging for sure, but my body was calling for a workout.  I decided to check out a class. The first class is free and I also had a coupon for a pair of free gloves so I had nothing to lose except a lot of sweat.

It helped that I know the owner, Tara. Her daughter had taken one of my kids yoga series. I got there early and she gave me an orientation. Upper cuts, jabs, round house kicks….. It was all greek to me.

As class began, I truly felt out of my element. I found the combinations hard!  Side note: when I came home, I told my husband, a purple belt in karate,  how I found it challenging to remember the sequences. He kindly informed me the correct term was combination. In yoga, we call it a sequence.

Nevertheless, I loved it. I loved the sweat. I loved the fact that I was challenging my body and my mind with something new. I realized that it had been a very long time since I tried something new. While I do try new exercise classes here and there, this class was truly out of my comfort zone.

I also think this is a great yang to my yin yoga practice.