I’m really enjoying my beginners yoga series. Tonight we spoke a little about the philosophy of yoga, and about how it’s physical of course, but it’s also about dropping down into your body and out of your head. That’s one of the hardest things for me to do – to turn off my mind, to stop making to do lists in my head. We also spend a lot of time focusing on our breathing, and as we continue with poses, she always reminds us to come back to our breathing. Sometimes I am so concentrated on the pose, that I lose the deep breathing. It’s also hard to get used to breathing the way we should be breathing – by expanding your stomach when you breath and allowing yourself to fill up with air. I think we tend to suck in our stomachs and raise our shoulders when breathing deeply. We should not be afraid to make our bellies large with breath.

I am planning two more days of yoga practice this week, at two other yoga studios. I got a new, much better, yoga mat today. I no longer feel like I am sliding around on sweaty palms when I am in downward dog! Next up – get out Ryan’s mom’s sewing machine, find someone to teach me how to thread it, and make myself (and my yogi friends) bags for our mats. Also next up, get my self together enough to get the garden planned out for this year, and try to figure out some way that we can start seeds without Jasper acting like it’s a free for all at the salad bar.

Oh, and before class when my yoga teacher saw that I was reading Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin she told me what a great book it was, and that she never knew anyone else to have read it. I told her it was my book club book and she said “wow, you must have a great bookclub.” I, of course, said “Yes, yes I do have an amazing book club.” This started a lovely conversation with the group about cooking and reading. Class was amazing. I came home, took a nice hot shower, made some tea and am planning to read a little before bed. What a wonderful evening.