Yoga Friends

There are so many things I love about HotYoga Nashville.  It's home, for one.  It's where I started my now 5 year yoga journey (Have I REALLY stuck it out that long?!), so I'm emotionally attached to it.  I feel like I know lots of people there.  I know when someone is new and who's been there longer than I have.  There's a nice southern feel, where we all speak to each other, but there's also a nice privacy, too.  Not everyone talks to everyone all the time.  If you want to come in and be unnoticed, it's possible.  If you're really zen one day and don't want that chatty girl talking your ear off, it's like she magically knows to talk to someone else.

Here in Culiacán, I have noticed that the yoga family is just that, a family.  They all know each other well.  It's HotYoga Nashville on a much smaller scale (they all gasp when I tell them that each of the 5 daily classes in Nashville has a minimum of 25 people and a maximum of 50).  I, however, seemed to be the one that was always in and out wanting to be unnoticed.  Cristina (the teacher) always made sure I felt welcomed, and she would chat with me for a few minutes.  Her family would always say a word or two in English before resuming conversations with their friends.  Cecy I could count on to talk quite a bit, but she only came once or twice a week.  Thursday, however, this seemed to change.

Class was small.  On Tuesday, we had had over 20.  Thursday balanced that out with 6 of us!  I was on the side with Victoria (Cristina's sister), who has a yoga body and perfect form.  I am pretty much insanely jealous of her postures.  Anyway, the good part of that is that she kept me on my toes.  When classes are small, it's sometimes hard to get a good energy going.  Victoria and I had a great thing going on our side of the room.  Cristina mentioned that several times and used us as examples.  I was able to do the full tree pose again, and my postures were good.  It was a combination of the good energy like I already mentioned with three weeks of determined practice.  Not to mention I took up running again.  That always makes my yoga better, and vice versa.

At one point, we had to get up off our stomachs by doing a plank pushup.  I'd rather die.  But I'm getting better.  Cristina is really good at incorporating arms and abs into Bikram yoga (which I think is deficient in both departments), so I've seen some improvement.  Anyway, it was hilarious because Victoria and I both lazied it up and Cristina made everyone lower back down and do it again for us.  She was keeping her eye on us.  Too funny.  Neither of us has enough arm strength to pull the rest of us up (although the rest of Victoria is way less than the rest of me, so I don't know why she's complaining).  At the end of class, I did some pigeons to open up my hips.  That's another thing I think Bikram lacks, but I rarely add it on at the end because I'm so spent.  Now that I live close, I'm not worried at the end of class about who will take me home or whether I'll encounter a taxi in five minutes or twenty.  I can just soak up the goodness of the last 90 minutes and add a few things if I feel like I need them!

When I came out, I joined the worn-out conversation that was going on.  We talked about the US as usual, and how long I'd been practicing.  Cristina said she'd seen lots of growth in my practice.  That was exciting.  I stuck around for about 10 minutes afterwards, and that was fun.