I was cajoled into doing the last class of the £10 for 10 classes offer at Yoga Haven tonight... Due to feeling groggy Sunday and missing an adjustment workshop, and then going on to miss Monday's mysore practice, by today my body needed a good beating again so I allowed it to happen...
I loved the practice too. Luckily it was M again, with his soft yet firm tone and plethora of metaphors and similies, I let the practice wash over me "like waves over the shore" (M, I hope you're proud!)
It was only 1 hour long which is probably why I didn't feel like I wanted to die. However, the last of the classes has made me re-think the motives for doing this type of yoga. Not particulatly my own but people's motives.. do these motives follow the eight limbed path for instance? Are these people being true to themselves and and is 'hot yoga' or 'bikram' an inauthentic type of yoga in the Sartrian meaning of the term? Or am I just over-analysing it?
I say these things because I have noticed my back being a lot more 'open' than before, and all from just 5 hot yoga sessions within a 10 day period... which then made me think does the heat create an inauthentic environment for the body to work in? Should we be allowing an outside force (heat in this case) to manipulate our bodies into places they wouldn't necessarily go on their own? Which then gets me onto thinking well if we let heat guide us into unknown territory, aren't physical adjustments just a similar inauthentic manipulation of the body? All these questions and to be quite frank, I haven't got the answers (just yet)... so any ideas please?!
And whilst sat outside the shala waiting for my body to cool down enough for me to stand again, I felt sad that the 10 day challenge was up... OK, so I only made 5 classes, (well done to D for 6) However, whilst pondering whether to take up the next hot yoga offer, I kinda knew deep down that it wasn't going to be.... Goodbye 'I can't believe it's not Bikram'... see you down the road..................
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