10,000 Vinyasas

It occurred to me today that, thanks to my yoga practice, I’ve never in my entire life been this strong and flexible. I mean, for goodness sakes, I’m 48 years old, and my muscle definition is unbelievable, at least to me, and of course, I’ve had extensive experience looking at myself in the mirror. Then I think about the workshop I attended a few weeks ago led by a 61 year old man, who had practiced yoga for 35+ years; his strength was several magnitudes greater than mine. This isn’t a comparision (remember, there are no judgments or competition in yoga, unless you practice Bikram), but rather an illustration of the possibilities of the benefits of yoga. Of course, there’s much more to yoga than just physical strength and flexibility, but those are what most people readily perceive. Yoga was originally developed (in my understanding) to allow one to meditate in a sitting position for many hours at a time without distractions from a poorly conditioned body, and as physical and mental exercise, it’s excellent (obviously, I’m somewhat biased here, but it’s a bias developed after engaging in many other physical activities for many years and choosing yoga, to some extent, over these previous ones).

Milestone: today I received something I hadn’t gotten in over 20 years: a job application…to teach yoga at local gym. After the inevitable background check, my career (hah!) in yoga teaching will begin. Let’s take that to wherver it goes…