Namaste.

I attended my first yoga class on Friday with my friend April. She has a gym membership and is able to bring a friend to try out the gym, so I went to the class with her. I was a little intimidated by the thought of yoga, because when I think of yoga I think of having to balance in strange positions and consequently making a fool of myself in front of lots of people. My experience wasn't exactly like that though.

I went to bed around 2:45 am the night before because I was hanging out with friends, knowing that I was going to be waking up in about 5 hours for this yoga class. I woke up twice before my alarm went off, probably anxious not to oversleep. I don't get to hang out with April very often, so I didn't want to be lame and sleep in.

Amazingly enough I made it on time to the class, which is a miracle in itself. There was a pretty good amount of people in the class, probably around 15, ranging in age from 20-60+. At the beginning of the class the instructor asked if it was anyone's first time, so I raised my hand and let everyone know it was my first time. A normal person probably would have refrained so as to blend in, but i like attention I guess. After this the instructor informed us all that this class would be an easier one. I had never been to the class before, so I couldn't judge if it was easier than usual, but some of the moves were definitely hard. We did some tricky moves that used muscles in my arms that had not been used in awhile. My arms were soooo sore the next day.

Anyways, yoga was really pretty fun and relaxing. I wish I could start every morning with yoga. I would be in very good shape and have good posture. I think it's all the stretching, but I had great posture after the class, I didn't have my shoulders slumped down like I usually do.

I also finally learned what "namaste" means. We used it in the class as a sort of greeting, so I looked it up online and found this definition:

"Namaste comes from the Sanskrit

word namah te. Namaste is

pronounced Nam-a-stay. In Sanskrit

namah means "bow, obeisance,

reverential salutation, adoration". Te is

the durative of the personal pronoun

tvam, "you". A literal translation of

Namaste (namah te) is thus

"reverential salutation to you." It is

commonly accompanied by a slight

bow made with the hands pressed

together, palms touching, in front of

the chest called Gassho."

(Courtesy of: http://www.lightandlovereiki.com/namaste.html)

I may possibly buy one of those yoga dvd's and start doing it at home. I'll let you know if anything comes of this, such as me beginning to understand the language of yoga.