My First Yoga Class

This past Friday, I took my very first, live and in-person yoga class.  Even though I’ve been practicing yoga for over a year and a half now, I’ve only ever practiced from YouTube videos.  A huge savings to my wallet to be sure, but I think there’s something to be said for a live yoga class.

The class was held at a local vineyard, and we practiced in between the grapevines.  There are no words to describe the gorgeous scenery.  It was so peaceful!  At first I had trouble settling into the practice because I was on sensory overload.  Not only was I outside, and now dealing with the heat, bugs and grass clippings that were stuck to everything (including my face!), but there were also people sitting next to me!  I was so afraid that I was going to struggle through the class.  The class was an hour long, and my usual at home practices will only last between 20-40 minutes.  I was really pleased that I was able to keep up with everyone else.  That means I’m getting good workouts at home!

After class, everyone gathered back at the vineyard’s small clubhouse, where we were treated to a wine tasting and some hors d’oeuvres.  The wine was ok.  Definitely not my favorite, but it was more about the yoga experience for me.  I didn’t stay long.  I had my tasting, and some cheese and grapes, and headed home.  I find it very difficult to go into a social situation like that by myself.  Everyone else was there was friends, so people paired off, and only talked to their friends.  I’m not good at starting a conversation with people I don’t know.  So, unless the other person is outgoing and takes pity on me, I’ll usually sit there by myself.  Socializing is a skill I definitely need to work on.

What I found was that there are some benefits to both an at-home practice and a live-practice.  I loved that personal feel of having someone physically sitting in front of me leading the class.  Both instructors talked about our location and touched on things that were going on around us, which helped me to focus.  Once I relaxed, I found it really helpful to be in a class with other people.  In a way, we all fed off of each others energy.  It was nice knowing that I was a part of a group of people who were all there for the same purpose. 

That being said, I think I'll stick to primarily doing yoga at home.  I love that I don't have to leave my living room, I can practice in inappropriate attire, get emotional if I need to, and if I'm not feeling it that day... I can stop, or alter the practice to fit my body's needs.  Plus, I like that I can choose the type of practice I want to do that day, as opposed to being at the mercy of the instructor.      

Overall, I rate this as a great new experience.  This has been something I wanted to do for the last year, and I’m so glad that I did.  Once again, I’ve proven to myself that I can survive doing something on my own.  For some reason, I’m always afraid that I’ll completely embarrass myself.  While having grass on my face did come close, it wasn’t so bad.