Downward Dogs and Angry Cats

I've taken up yoga.  

I know.  Oh, I know.

It's all "om" and trips to India and wearing racerback exercise tanks and those finger socks with rubber soles.

Except it isn't!

I put off yoga for a long time because it was just a little bit too out there.  I didn't think I was 

the type.  I don't juice my carrots and parsley, and I occasionally get angry and lippy. 

But I decided to try it.  I'd noticed I was kind of tight in the morning and my neck and shoulders were all 

out of whack from my sleeping position.  I tried all kinds of different things to fix my neck.  I

followed the massage person's suggestion to lie on my couch arm and let my arms hang 

(surprisingly effective except for the tingling).  I tried to switch from sleeping on my side/armpit/bicep

to sleeping on my back with my hands crossed over my heart (think the mom on Addam's Family).

I woke up one day with a lily in my hands and knew that Richard was making fun of me.

Not really.

But it didn't help.  So, yoga it was.  And yoga it is.  I admit, I thought yoga was the exercise of 

people who really didn't want to break a sweat.  It's just stretching right?  I found a beginner

yoga video on YouTube and realized....

I was wrong!

That stuff is hard!  The balance.  The stretching beyond stretching.  The trying to look graceful during 

it....fiew.  I admit, I didn't nearly look like the lady on the video.  She was beautiful and graceful in 

her racerback tank.  I was kind of, well, not beautiful or graceful in my pj bottoms and Richard's t-shirt.

She moved from position to position like a dancer.  I stumbled through like a 12 month old learning

to walk.  

And then I thought, "Hey!  Let's mix things up and try the core strengthening yoga!"  Oh, Emilie.  

Oh, no, Emilie.  Leave well enough alone, Emilie.

I originally thought I didn't have abs.  I found them.  They're under that layer of skin and fat and 

they are real.  And they hurt.  A lot.  Scissoring your legs while keeping your shoulders off the ground

is torture.  Resting (ha!) on your elbows and pumping your legs and twisting our hips all the while

keeping your feet from touching the floor is excruciating.  Looking good while doing it?  No.

It's day 2, and it hurts to bend over.  But, I am not a quitter.  I will prevail!

Yoga, I will own you.