Be kind to yourself

Class 2 of the 40 day challenge was the 9:15 Hatha 1 class with Zelinda.

At the beginning of class, Shawn and I were talking about the gentle class the night before, and how one of our new challenge classmates was being extremely hard on himself. Obviously an athlete, and a competitive man, he was struggling with a new form of exercise that he hadn't yet mastered, and he kept repeating, "I'll do better next time."

When Shawn and I first brought Larry to class with us, he reacted exactly the same way. He would go home frustrated and sore from trying to force his body to do something it didn't want to do.

Shawn and I talked a bit about how our classmate needs to be more gentle with himself, and realize that there is no bad or good, that he just needs to do what he can and honor his body.

I haven't been to a hatha class since I took my hiatus several months ago. Maybe 6 or 8 months. I've always struggled with parts of the hatha class, namely the plank and down dog combinations. We did a lot of those today. A lot. So much that my chest is sore, and my hamstrings hurt. We did a lot of wide-legged forward folds, too, which normally don't cause stress, but today made my ankle ache.

So, as we did about our fourth sun salutation series, and my hands slipped like they always do because I get sweaty, and my knees and ankles gave out and I had to flop to the floor like a landed fish, I started grumbling at myself. I was out of shape, I thought, and I needed to work on my arms and abs, and everyone else in the class was half my size, and ruh ruh ruh...

Then, as I dropped into child's pose to pant and rest after that last down dog, where everyone else was still kicking their legs in the air and waving them around, it occurred to me. Here I was telling someone else to be kind to their body, and that yoga wasn't competitive, but I wasn't following through on that.

So I proceeded to wallow in my child's pose for a bit, letting my tight muscles relax.

Okay, so I still muttered a little sigh of relief when Zelinda said we were moving into sitting instead of tall kneeling and lunges...