Prime directive – find a guru
In my last yoga class Aaron was saying that you are compelled to go to yoga for your own specific reasons – he said he first went to learn how to fly. I’d have to say most times I am blind to my intentions. For example, I didn’t begin yoga to accomplish anything much less did I have an imperative. I had taken one too many yoga classes in the Bay Area – none of which spoke to me – as a matter of fact, I flew out of those yoga classes.
Then because I injured my back while doing Pilates after leaving Uncle Joe’s Studio and Romney’s more formal classes, and was seeking a way to heal and stretch, I stumbled into Michele’s class at NOAC about the same time she was opening Swan River on Magazine and at a time when this entire city was seeking any form of healing that was available – whether that be physical, spiritual, emotional, or not yet determined.
I looked back over the last four decades and realized I have blindly undertaken my physical training. In my 20s, I began running because I had never been coordinated, athletic, or sporty and I wanted something that would help with excessive energy and my tendency to over-volupt (my word), in my 30s I sought all sorts of different ways to move my body from running to rowing and even trying sculling after clipping a photo from a magazine of an octogenarian woman sculling, in my 40s came extreme sports – marathon, triathlons, Body Pump and Pilates, and now in my 50s I see a pattern emerging – I want to quietly take my body to a new place and I’m pulling my mind along – when I am in Aaron’s acrobatic class on Sundays, I feel brave, I feel my mind and body are reconnecting – I leave there with a huge smile on my face.
Why am I going to yoga? I think it is because I have found my gurus – Guru 1 – Michele, and Guru 2 – Aaron. Something about their classes speak to something deep inside me.