Last month, right after I committed to pay in advance for a year of unlimited yoga classes, the owner announced the studio was moving. Of course. The good news is that for a year I’d been saying what the studio really needed was a beer machine. The new location has two bars and a restaurant that serves adult beverages in the strip mall where we are now located. The new studio is nice, but different. It’s got lovely yellow walls and a great floor with good foot feel. It has these gauzy curtains at the glass front windows which make it too light in some areas… I had my first class yesterday and it was just fine. It’s a new space so adjustments will need to be made. Today I showed up for my second class. Some mats were facing north/south some facing east/west. I plopped my mat in a space and was immediately told by the teacher, move over there, I don’t want you next to me. Harsh, but I didn’t know it was her mat. I started to put my mat against the wall but was told, “That’s for Lori…” Well, OK… I took another spot where someone had the fan in tornado mode. “That has to go,” I said, so the teacher turned it off. Halfway through the class, she decided that one of the other students (menopause) was too hot so I was asked to move again. Yoga trains our bodies to be flexible and for many, yoga also provides a spiritual framework. The last part of the class I was deciding whether I was ever going back to that Tuesday class. BUT THEN….Who lets a thing like the Honey relocation, relocation, relocation program turn into a big deal? Not me. Flexibility, whether physical or mental is essential to maintaining well-being. In the old studio we could hear cars and men peeing and phones ringing and dogs barking. The teachers remind us to look inside, to train our minds to focus inward on our own thoughts and tune out the noise. When our inward thoughts ARE the noise, we need to turn down the volume and focus on the flexibility.
