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Living Downtown and Trying New Things:

Yoga

We moved to Downtown West Minneapolis about four years ago. Leaving behind a cozy neighborhood in South Minneapolis wasn’t easy to do. As a neighborhood goes, our spot just a block away from Lake Nokomis was pretty ideal. We’d lived there for almost thirty years so a lot of memories, favorite haunts, and wonderful neighbors were being left behind. We also dropped off a house full of “essential” possessions at the Good Will on the way.

We moved to a condo that had a few more feet of livable space than our house had—but there is a lot less storage space here. Given that we love our new amenities, it was a wonderful trade off. Moving to less maintenance and closer to the things we like to do was a great decision.

One of my favorite activities is exploration. Downtown Minneapolis provides lots of diverse territory for me to walk around. We picked our location carefully so that we’d be in the center of mass transit, restaurants, entertainment, and shopping. As we step out the building’s doors, we exit into a number of zip codes virtually intersecting at the corners of our building. There is the North Loop district in North Minneapolis, North East Minneapolis, South East Minneapolis, or South Minneapolis. The diversity and offerings of things to do and see is excellent. And, Dear Reader, I want to share with it you.

My primary form of exercise has been swimming laps for 25 years. Yes, it can be a little boring but I’ve developed coping mechanisms such as daydreaming about what I’m going to eat as soon as I get out of the pool. I may or may not act on the impulse but it keeps my mind busy when I don’t fall into a meditative state plowing through the water.

So, moving Downtown provided me with the opportunity to find some other physical opportunities. I noticed right away that there are plenty of small studios with big signs reading “YOGA,” usually placed on a second story window. Now for me, trying yoga would be different. Just in case you might be interested in trying yoga, I don’t want to discourage you. But it might not be at all what you may think. A few weeks after moving to Downtown, I tried yoga. Here’s a sample of my experiences.

Yoga should be practiced “in the moment” so I’ll give you a taste in the first person.

A few minutes into my first class, I find myself in a down dog position for a little while; the sweat starts beading up on my forehead. I push my posterior up in the air and let my head hang down. Sometimes I lose my “intention” and let my mind wander... I think, “How did I get into practicing yoga?” I first heard about yoga when somebody I knew in my college dorm took classes at the student union. The idea seemed so bizarre: I imagined exercises in loin clothes with a “guru” leading the group. The image was as appealing as smelly socks to me at the time.

Ever since I’ve gotten involved with yoga I noticed that its terms and concepts have crossed into our daily culture far more than I would have guessed. Yoga jokes are regularly used in comedy because yoga innately appeals to the sense of the physically absurd. My first memories of following yoga instruction was “you want me to do what?”

To give you an example, in an episode of the sit-com, “Frasier,” newly married (and naïve) Niles talks his wife, Daphne, into private yoga lessons at their home. The teacher puts them through the usual contortions to great comic effect. Daphne is supple and strong and excels in the poses. Niles is stiff and awkward and hurts his back trying to compete with Daphne’s moves. The punch line at the end of the scene: the instructor takes Niles to the emergency room.

If one’s ever tried yoga, the “Niles” joke is innately obvious. Beginners start by looking around at others in the class, sneakily comparing themselves. What first appears to be a simple pose is actually quite a challenge to one’s balance, strength, and flexibility. It’s possible a little panic will set in while attempting to follow the instructor’s example. For instance, he/she instructs us all to make what seems to be a figure eight, which enlists all possible body parts. My specialty: toppling out of a pose while balancing on one foot, possibly landing dangerously near or on someone else. I imagine us all knocking each other down successively in dominos fashion.

At the beginning of class, we are usually led through “sun salutations.” This is intended to warm up the inner core. First we extend our arms to the sky, swoop our arms down to the floor to fold our bodies down, come up half way and look ahead, then pop out into down dog position and hold (forever) in that “posterior up” position. There are different creative versions of this but they are always repeated four to six times just to get the body warmed up. The scene is reminiscent of a ballet class but the goal isn’t synchronization and we are not all able to do the same thing at the same time. No special toe shoes, tights or mirrors on the ceiling required.

Every “asana” or pose has a number of versions, starting out at an easy level and then successively adding difficulty by lifting a foot, bending some limb, or stretching further. At first, I was naïve enough to think I should try every move the teacher demonstrates. This isn’t gym class. No instructor is going to come around and thwack me on the butt if I can’t do more.

OK. I’m in down dog wondering if my wrists are going to snap. The instructor goes around to everyone to check our form. She’s pleased, so she suggests we raise one leg up while in the pose. I think “what??” but I raise my right leg up, leaving me to balance on three limbs. The first thing I did wrong was lifting my leg directly up behind me, thereby popping my hip a little out of place. I lower my leg and try again as the instructor goes on to say that our raised leg shouldn’t be higher than our body and our foot should be positioned back behind us – that prevents back stress and hip popping. We move on through a progression of asanas, each designed to begin in a “starter” pose. Then the instructor adds optional difficulty by suggesting successive changes to the pose (to give us the opportunity to form weird and impressive shapes errr…I mean progressive stretches).

To balance the experience, each asana is done first on one side of the body and then the other. So, when I reach across my back to connect my hands diagonally behind me I can almost reach it on the right side but not even close on the left. When I reach up into the sky for triangle pose with the left hand and then attempt to perform the right hand version, I find my shoulders each have a different personality—it feels like I’m doing a completely different pose from one side to the other.

Now we are thirty minutes into a one-hour class and I’m starting to think about the time. This is a total distraction from both the meditative state and being able to follow directions. To meditate well, focus is the goal. I redirect my thoughts to the sweat on my brow and my foot now bent into my crotch. I deepen my commitment to completing the class and continue through the last poses. I know the reward at the end is ten minutes of lying in corpse pose (laying on a mat face up, legs straight out, feet slightly apart, hands open with palms facing the ceiling) then totally mellowing out for five to ten minutes in “savasana.”

“Savasana” is heavenly. After the challenge of completing yoga practice, ethereal relaxation music is turned on, the lights are dimmed down, and I lie on my mat. The instructor offers to cover each of us with a blanket or give your neck a light, quick massage as she moves around the room to each participant. At the end of savasana, the instructor brings us “back” to the room softly ringing a bowl shaped meditation bell. We all open our eyes, slowly revive and sit up on our mats comfortably—this is the seated Lotus position if one’s practiced for many, many years—and if not, sitting down on our mats in any comfortable position will do.

Then, we acknowledge ourselves for our practice that day and bow towards the instructor, as she does towards us, with our hands together saying the Sanskrit word “namasté.” In yoga, namasté is said to mean “I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you, which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One.” Or another interpretation could be “There is so much meaning in one word of Sanskrit that you could not possibly comprehend it with your feeble Western mind.”

Yoga has permeated my psyche. Just the other morning I woke up dreaming of my yoga practice. For me, dreaming of anything I am in the process of learning is normal. For example, I had a “eureka moment” studying German in college and woke up thinking I really was fluent auf Deutsch. And can you believe I actually thought I could do calculus for an entire day before I remembered I couldn’t? Taking prescription sleep meds enhances this whole experience and I kind of like it.

In a pigeon pose (no we don’t fly), bring yourself into a push-up pose down the length of one’s mat. Then one knee is brought forward under the body until sitting in a split, on top of one leg. Then fold down the body with face to knee while both arms are completely stretched forward on the floor.

Hold and breathe. Breath deeply.

Once I woke up dreaming I was in the middle of practicing yoga in class. I had done such a beautiful pigeon pose that the teacher came over to me and remarked upon it as it was an astounding accomplishment for me. I was embarrassed by the attention but it felt so good to be making progress. Then in the next pose we were asked to stand on one leg and balance in tree pose. I was so over-confident from the pigeon pose praise that I attempted lifting one foot gracefully to the other’s ankle and raised my arms above my head.

“Tim-berrrrrr!”

I had initiated the domino tumble around the room. Oops. Time to wake up.

So now, I’m a genuine yoga junkie and will be starting out the New Year trying to get in three yoga classes a week. You’ll see me trekking out with a rolled mat over my shoulder any time of day. I bet I’ll be thinking about what I’m going to eat after my class.

Copyright © 2010 Garnatz and Grovender, Inc.
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