A - Z Blogging Challenge - Yoga, My Experience With It!

I love the thought of Yoga.  I read about the healthy benefits of it. Yoga has been practiced for over 5000 years.  Yoga is practiced daily in the United States by millions of people.  I have been to one Yoga class in my life.

Yoga is about stretching and breathing.  Sometimes meditation is included.  I always thought Yoga was about relaxation and reaching a total state of calm.

My friend and I were all excited about our gym offering a yoga class, and we heard the instructor was very experienced and had been teaching in the area for many years.  We had been taking Pilates classes for some time and really enjoyed it.  We felt like they would be similar classes.

We showed up at the classroom for the first Yoga class.  The instructor was there and there were several other students.  Most of the other students worked out with us at the gym or attended some of the other classes with us.  Our gym offered all of their classes free to members.

The room was dark.  We got out our mats and chose our spots on the floor.  We went through the movements with our instructor, she took things very slow and easy.  We were all new to this class so she was very concerned that we didn't hurt ourselves.  I was enjoying the class although I was having a tough time with some of the positions.  I am as uncoordinated as they come.  Luckily for me, I chose a friend who is just as uncoordinated as I am.

As we neared the end of the lesson, our instructor brought us to a very quiet and calm place.  Then she said we would all do our meditation portion of the yoga.  She said we could each do whatever chant we chose.  We are all sitting quietly and she began.  I am not kidding you, all of a sudden it sounded like a train was coming through the room.  

She was totally unaware that anyone else was there and she was making the most God awful sound I have ever heard.  I think the walls shook with it.  We were supposed to be sitting with our eyes closed.  When that noise started my eyes popped open and I turned to look at my friend.  She was looking back at my with the same look on her face.  The next thing we knew we were both holding our mouths to keep the laughter from coming out.  We didn't want to interrupt her with our laughter, like she could have heard it over that horrible noise she was making.  We looked around the classroom and other people were starring at her too.  I seemed like she went on for about 20 minutes.  I really don't think it was that long, but it might have been.

When she finished, my friend and I could not look at her.  We knew we could not keep a straight face.  We got out of the room as quickly as possible.  We never went back!  We knew we couldn't get through another class without laughing.   We had talked and laughed about it the rest of the day.  We were not going back!!  

Her classes didn't last very long at the gym.  She wasn't having much attendance.  I don't think anybody went back for a second class.  When we told people about the class they thought we were exaggerating.  They would go to the class to see if it was as bad as we said.  It became the joke of the club.  

I know she was a well known Yoga instructor, so maybe we just weren't in the right frame of mind for her level of instruction.

I have never had the nerve to attend another Yoga class.  I know it is great for your body and I should probably find a good class to attend, but seriously, what if I walk into another class like that!