Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I am racing to Hot yoga class. I am already 10 minutes late when I realize that I have made a detour in the wrong direction of the studio. The average speed of the drivers blocking all the lanes of a badly asphalted street is 25mph...Needless to say my "California" plates are not received well tailgating a monster truck in front of me. He breaks, I scream out a profanity in Russian. Eyes crazy, both of us. I manage to pass him by, all at an exhilarating speed of 35mph.

Way to go! "Way to go you, zen-yoga-relaxation-self realization seeker!" I am so NOT zen that I could melt titanium with the determination and intensity that I scale the road ahead. I am proactively anti-zen at the moment. If "Zen" would have seen me coming, it would put a roadblock on my path. Ok, that's enough with Zen.

I rush into the studio. I put my mat down and then I begin Surya Namaskara (sun salutations). The woman in front of me is all warmed up and as she plows her back into inversion, she is emitting the "OHM"'s in slightly different key. They resemble something in between a sound a female organism and a roar of a heavy-lifter bench-pressing 450lb at the gym.
Couple of minutes pass and the noise subsides. It is hot, humid, wonderfully packed. Dimmed lights and a smell of mint-rosemary in the air .I move and start the Ujjayi breath. Long inhale through the nose, warming, slightly forced exhale. I start this wave of air in and out of my body unconsciously. It is rolling inside of my lungs like a gentle tide. I am breathing now. As my spine, hips, legs, arms limbers into the motions I realize that the previous "wild eyed" state has left my body. I AM Zen. I am smooth, calm, focused, kind. I am restored.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ujjayi_breath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Namaskara


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