June Self-Portrait: Saying ‘om’ again

I’ve been practicing yoga on and off since I was 13 years old, studying poses I first found flipping through a copy of Seventeen magazine on the floor of my teenage bedroom. Over the past 15 years, I’ve taken a few classes in college and gone through a stack of yoga tapes, but I really hit my yoga stride five years ago, when I started taking class in Muncie from a woman who teaches the Kripalu method of yoga—which is the method that felt like coming home to me. Forget the hot yoga or the yoga where I attempted to twist myself into a pretzel to match the guru I was trying to learn from on TV. Here was the mind-body connection I’d never felt until I started taking Manisha’s weekly class.

Here’s a great article on the benefits of this method: Kripalu Yoga is an interplay of body, mind and energy. Within the physical body is a subtle flow of rhythmic, energy pulsations that we call prana, or life force. Even the most insignificant thought can disturb or block this flow of energy, creating imbalance or even disease. Every act of the body is invariably accompanied and strongly influenced by mental and emotional conditions, the awareness of which forms the more subtle aspect of the practice which includes physical postures, breathing techniques, deep relaxation and meditation. By fully experiencing and objectively observing your physical, mental and emotional experience, blockages begin to dissolve, energy is freed, and healing can to happen on all levels. Each day, as you encounter and release layers of stress, pain, and unconscious resistance lodged in the body, you progressively accelerate the natural, internal healing processes that enable you to awaken to the higher levels of emotional stability, mental clarity and physical well-being.

About a year ago, with everything on my plate shooting and our trip to Europe on the horizon, I took a break from practicing yoga. I meant for it to be temporary. And somehow, I let twelve months pass as “temporary”, never once practicing my Cobra or Balancing Half Moon (my favorite pose). Yoga is one of those life pursuits that, when I let go of it, I notice. My body aches more. My mind doesn’t feel as clear. The proverbial life wheel just feels a bit flat when the practice is missing—even if it is just an hour or two a week.

I dedicated myself to joining Manisha’s class again in June. I’m entering the fourth week back (after feeling so ashamed on my first trip, when Manisha asked me, “I was wondering about you! I thought you’d moved away!” ) and it feels like such an accomplishment to carve time out once again for something I love so much. Yoga is my me time. It teaches me patience and strength. Makes me aware of my body in a way that no other exercise ever has. And the best part? I sleep like a baby after I practice. It feels om so good to be back, I can tell you that much.

The Bow

Do you practice yoga? What’s your favorite pose?

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