Downward Dog Anyone?

Today is Yoga Day USA. No doubt my beautiful sister, who is also a certified yoga instructor, is teaching a class today and reminding everyone to take deep breaths. She's tried and tried to teach me a few poses and get me interested in what has become a passion of hers, but I'm not convinced that my short, uncoordinated self was made for yoga. She, on the other hand, is tall and graceful and can bend and twist herself into some of the most remarkable and impressive poses. And all with a smile on her face! I however, grunt and squeak, huff and puff, moan and groan and fail miserably trying to accomplish what she makes look so utterly simple.

The word Yoga means "to join or yoke together" and it brings the body and mind together into one harmonious experience. The whole system of Yoga is built on three main structures: exercise, breathing and meditation. Breath is the source of life in the body and exercise and breathing prepare the body and mind for meditation to quiet the mind and allow silence and healing from everyday stress. It sure sounds like Yoga would be beneficial to me and Lord knows I need all the help I can get to alleviate stress, but the few times I've tried it, I become so frustrated with my inability and ultimate klutziness that I fall onto my mat in defeat!

Once, while we were on vacation in Myrtle Beach, she offered to give Mom and I a few "wake-up" lessons every morning. She brought each of us our own mats and we carried them out to the balcony of our condo with high hopes of transformation!

The art of Yoga is made up of various poses. Each pose has an official Sanskrit name, but all of them have an alternative name that for the average person like me, is much easier to pronounce and remember. Almost every pose is named after an animal or object. I get the impression the poses are named for what they are supposed to resemble while doing them. For instance, there's the Cobra pose, which looks exactly like a cobra with it's head up and ready to strike. There's a Tree pose, Sphinx, One-Legged Pigeon, Dolphin, Eagle and Frog. There's a Feathered Peacock pose that has you balancing on your elbows with your body up in the air and leaning against a wall, legs fanned out like a peacock's feathers. The Fish is a pose supposedly named this because if you can do the pose in water, you float like a fish. There's a Camel pose, but I honestly don't see the resemblance in any way. Downward Dog, Warrior and Cow (inappropriate in my opinion, for a room full of women like me stuffed into a silly leotard!) The two most impossible looking poses are the Crane and Firefly, where you balance your full body weight on your arms as if in flight. I will NEVER in my LIFE be able to do either of those poses! There's another difficult pose called The Wild Thing and the poetic translation of this pose is "the ecstatic unfolding of the enraptured heart." For me, more like a "ruptured" heart! Ugh!'

My precious and patient sister spent her mornings on that balcony showing us what I'm sure were supposed to be fairly simple, beginner poses and even though I'm sure we were her most difficult students, she continued to encourage us the whole way. What was meant to be a quiet, peaceful period of morning meditation to start our day was instead filled with me making funny noises, failing to breathe properly then gasping for breath before I turned blue. I kept thinking "I sure hope there's no one watching us from the condos across the water because they're surely getting a show and a half with me flopping around on this mat like a fish out of water!"

The final poses of our sessions, I'm proud to say, I mastered completely! Only because they are the absolute easiest, for cooling down. Mountain Pose (where you basically just stand there. . . Hey! I can do this!) and Up the Wall where you scoot up to a wall and place your legs up the wall. Simple! And the easiest of all, Corpse pose, which is exactly as it sounds: laying flat on your back in total relaxation, dead tired from your workout! I can DEFINITELY do this one!