Being Open Minded

I challenged myself to be open minded today. I went with my roommate to her yoga studio to take a class this afternoon. I used the experience to practice non-attachment and letting go of expectations. I vowed not to let my ego take over. I focused on understanding why that type of yoga and that studio appeals to so many people.

My first challege came before I had even placed my mat into the studio. The teacher told me that the focus of the class would be quads. Unfortunately, I already have strong, developed quads and have been actively trying to use them less because they are so strong and build muscle so easily. I have been told that my quads are over developed and a massage therapist even suggested that my quads could be contributing to my low back pain. You can imagine how "thrilled" I was to hear that we would be working out my favorite body part. Yippee.

I did my best to turn the quad building poses into quad lengthening and stretching poses and I made some other modifications to counter some of the quad work. For example, instead of doing ustrasana with the group I used that time to do virasana with a heart opener in order to combine quad stretching with some heart opening/ back bending. I also modified Dancer's pose in order to make it more about stretching my quads out rather than it being about balancing and back bending.

Overall, I had a nice practice and definitely got my body moving and my sweat dripping. If nothing else, this was an exercise in being present, being open minded, not letting the ego influence what the true self needs, and letting go of expectations---all central themes in yoga.