The 30-Day Yoga Challenge :: Day 25

I am still doing a happy dance. “Why’s that?” you say? Because on Saturday I completed my 26th class of the 30-day Yoga Challenge at my studio!!

But let’s start on day 25 …

Day 25: Power Flow

After my first experience with Ying Yoga, I was limited with choices for classes I can take on a Friday. The only other class available is a Power Yoga class described as “a level 2/3 Flow class that works up to a higher level of vigor with more challenging variations of postures demonstrated.” That “level 2/3” part is what made me choose Friday as my rest day for the rest of the month. However, this Friday left me with no choice. My level one ass was going to have to make do in a level 2/3 class.

Usually I’m eager for work to end and my weekend to start, but not this past Friday. This Friday I spent my day dreading going to class. By the time I finally got to class I was just repeating “you’re not going to die” to myself over and over.

The good news is I didn’t die! But this was most certainly the toughest practice I’ve had throughout the challenge. I’m proud of myself for reigning myself back and taking the lower level modifications, rather than throwing my back out trying something that was obviously beyond my level.

However difficult the class, the worst thing about the class was actually a guy right in front of me in class. This yogi was something I hadn’t seen in any of my classes to date: a show off.

At first I thought he was a teenage boy, and that explained his behavior of laughing through tough poses and looking over at his neighbors and smiling while he hit the pose deeper than they did. It was disruptive, but I took him to be a bendy teenage gymnast or something and didn’t mind as much. However, at the end of class I thought I heard him mention that he was an instructor himself and got a better look at his face. Oh, he was not a teenage. Suddenly his behavior seemed all that more worse.

With his abilities, he certainly had much to be proud of. But to this point I’ve found most yogis to be modest. The fun part of yoga is that so much is internal … you’re fighting your thoughts from distracting you … you’re keeping your body from pushing too far too soon … you’re focusing on your breath. But you’re usually not competing with those around you. Yes, from time to time you’ll find yourself comparing yourself to those around you (this happens to me all the time… Friday especially) but you remind yourself that this is about your practice, not theirs and refocus.

I guess it just took me off guard to see someone making their practice more of a competition with their neighbors. But with 25 classes under my belt in June and this was the first time I encountered this, that’s not too bad.

Afterwards I shot my friend Carolina from Peas in a Blog a text that only said two words, but just about covered my experience:

Holy shitballs.

She knew exactly what class I was talking about. 🙂

Tags: 30-day yoga challenge, power yoga, yoga, yoga challenge