Many of you reading this blog are probably not familiar with my many many posts about my yoga practice back in the day…before we moved to Texas in 2008! I discovered yoga at my YMCA long ago with an incredible instructor, Jenifer Parker. She spoiled me, no instructor I’ve had since her has measured up. But I’ve tried many classes and instructors. My favorite was actually sunrise yoga on the beach in Bethany Beach, DE.
I practiced yoga in a group twice a week or so right up till the week Alex was born. Not pre-natal yoga either, full on vinyasa style yoga. I was in really fabulous shape, physically and mentally. Then we moved and I got busy with two kids and making new friends. I’m not very good at home yoga practice, but I still do it occasionally when I get stressed or feel some aches and pains in my body. When we joined the YMCA I tried a couple of classes. One class was too hard for my friend Kristi, who I like to workout with. She has never really done yoga before so she needed a beginner class. We tried another class that was pretty good, but didn’t fit into my schedule very well.
Recently the YMCA started offering a class called Christ-centered Yoga, which happens to meet across the street from the Y at my church. At first I thought they would never allow me to leave my kids in the Y’s childwatch and go to this class across the street, but Kristi asked and it turned out they would!
Tuesday we attended our first Christ-centered yoga class, and it was very interesting…in a good way. We placed our mats in a circle with a silver cross at the center. I’m actually not a big fan of using a physical cross as a focal point. She had printed out sheets for us to read scripture in unison, and she talked a little about God’s truth and the lies the world hands us. It was a beginner yoga class, and I noticed she didn’t use any sanskrit names for poses. The instructor also teaches other cardio and strength training classes at the Y, so I think she’s had a lot of fitness training and not a lot of real yoga as a discipline training. That’s ok for the purpose of this class, I guess. Being the “know-it-all” that I have a tendency to be, I found myself often wanting to add to what she was saying. But I kept my mouth shut 🙂
The class was a good combination of focus on God and physical exercise and relaxation. I got a good burn going in the middle and we had a nice long savasana at the end. While we were relaxing in corpse pose she came around and rubbed “anointed oil” on our foreheads and temples, which smelled nice. Kristi enjoyed it too, so we’ll be heading back to that class again.