Ah, the dichotomy of yoga

For those of you who are not familiar with yoga, this is the sun salutation sequence, or at least this is a variation of a practice with many variations. If this little boy was actually moving he would Inhale while to move from figure no.1 to figure no. 2 and Exhale to move to figure 3, then Inhale to move to figure 4, ect. The breath should be an integral part of the practice.

Also integral to a strong yoga practice is non judgment. Usually, this means that you shouldn't judge yourself poorly when you fall over or aren't the best in the class. When you have an awesome back bend like mine, though (perhaps due to the gift of an extra vertebra?), non judgment means that I shouldn't be too pleased with myself.

Yoga should be a refuge from the serious world, but the practice should also teach us not to take the rest of the world so seriously.

Why did I just get so yoga preachy? Because I'm naturally a pedantic person? Yes, but also, because I have just had a funny yoga class. To start with, let me say it was a great class with a great teacher. Then let me say that the teacher was not a native speaker of English. He had a cute Frenchy Italiany accent, and when he said "exhale" it sounded like he was saying "excel". As in, "Inhale, fold forward, Excel, chaturanga."

I tend to space out at yoga and just follow the sun salutations with muscle memory. So I would hear him say "excel" and for a beat I would think, "wow, this guy is really pushing excellence", then I would realize what he was really saying. I thought that was funny. So I wanted to share my experience at an excellent yoga class in which I excelled.