What Made Me Take Yoga, Finally.

I've been looking at yoga for years but decided to pursue Tai Chi and Chi Kung instead. I liked the Yang energy of that beautiful martial art. I got as far as teaching Chi Kung...well, guiding, would be more appropriate to say. Then this and that happened and I found myself looking for another form of structured physical something.

It was a combination of coincidences, locations and chemistry, I guess. Like many things. I've been studying the chakras for years, being a new agey kind of girl, and in January, I saw this poster posted (as posters are) at The Planet Bakery on Water St., right beside the bookstore where I 'work'. "Pretty colours," I thought to myself and then read the poster a little more closely. Chakra Dance, it said. At the corner of my street and a very close street!!!

Now, this pinged with me because last autumn, I scored Gabrielle Roth's 3 dvd set on ecstatic dance at the library sale! At the time, I didn't really realise what a huge find it was but then Google and personal experience told me! lol You can check it out here. Very awesome!

Chakra yoga ecstatic dance, to me, is just like singing in the shower. You shut your eyes and give 'er! And your dance is never wrong because its your dance. And when your eyes are shut, well, you could be anywhere, by yourself or at a James Blunt concert or not. Now, I love to dance, (which you might not suspect to look at me) but I don't want to dance at bars (anymore) thanks. But where else do you dance? I just want to jump or whirl or shimmy to music with a good beat. (And I absolutely don't want to belly dance! Too Yin for this double Aries tomgirl and I am completely uncomfortable with it as a form of expression...for me) So, I started dancing in my living room with Gabrielle and then...I saw the poster!

I called Tiina (her link is on the side there) and the rest is yoga history. lol

The workshop is 5 weeks long and we dance, draw, speak, play instruments, meet stones, meditate, perform asanas (poses or positions) and send out positive energy to the universe or very specific people or causes. The music is an unbelievable mix of many influences, including new age, Indian, and, my personal fave, rap! Seriously! MC Yogi! (I'll talk more about him in another post). It somehow combines many of my personal interests in the most delicious way. If this is your scene, it's da bomb!

All spacey new age stuff aside, yoga dance is an amazing work out! I feel like butter(ghee?) at the end of a session, all melty and bendy. And it is so darn fun! Try it.

And this is what made me take yoga, finally.