Breakthroughs

In future posts, I promise to put the word "yoga" in the headline, so if you're not into yoga you can just skip over the post. But today I just want to trumpet to the world how great I think the practice of yoga is, physically, mentally, the whole Megillah* - so please bear with me.

Anyway, here I am in the second week of Starting Yoga, Again, and For The Last Time. The initial pain from the muscles on either side of my torso, lower abdomen and shoulder has subsided, which is slightly disappointing as it gives me great pleasure to know that I've worked these hitherto unused body parts.

I'm sure I'll find new areas in which to ache, however, particularly as I am determined to do head/handstands. Someday. I suspect that is a long way away, as even a down dog held longer than five breaths sets my upper arms a-tremble like the last leaf in a November wind.

In any case, I've been trying these "flow" classes, which link various positions and poses. Attention to breathwork is paramount, otherwise the whole passage becomes a shoddy mess. Now that I've memorized some of the sequences, though, I'm finally getting it. And I also had a breakthrough in actually physically working through something I've realized for a long time: You can use your body to trick your mind into being at peace.

As a former health editor, I knew this. Exercise improves your mood. Meditation, or even very simple, easy, repetitive breathing, can lower your blood pressure. I've used Andrew Weil's 4-7-8 breath successfully many, many times to quell road rage. Even smiling can actually make you feel happier, even if you didn't feel like smiling in the first place.

But today is the first time I realized, as I moved semi-smoothly from pose to pose, drawing breath in...out...in...and out, that I can really get, out of yoga, one of my primary goals, which is to be a calmer, saner, more clear-headed person when I'm taking care of my mom and talking my dad back from the ledge.

*Do you know where the phrase "the whole Magillah" comes from? I didn't, and found very amusing and interesting trivia upon looking it up - check it out.