Austin's Free Day of Yoga in Review

While many of my Austin fellows were evacuating their homes and escaping from the Texas wildfires, I was planning out my Free Day of Yoga on Labor Day. Yes, selfish, unmarried, and out of harm's way. Could my life be any more capacious? Don't envy me though. This was the only thing I could think to do to occupy my time and I ended up taking three very different classes with varying results. The end result being that I am still incredibly sore from taking all these advantages.

Blurg...

Kundalini (w/aroma therapy) - Well, here's alternative medicine for ya. If there was ever a class where a society of religious individuals (who were not Hindu mind you) that thought Yoga to be the devil's handy work, this class would be about as close to that as you could imagine. I will say though, for as devout a Christian as I am, I did not feel like the devil had scooped me up, rather, I just felt... happy. I walked out of the class with a smile on my face!

Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a little out there. We used essential oils to unleash our tensions, harness our inner being stuff, and relax our minds. Then, at the end, while everyone was in there final vinyasa, the yogi instructor sang to us whilst playing his accordion. This, more than anything else that occurred, made me smile. I wasn't laughing at him; I just thought it was sweet. What I found funny was during our 'Ohm' chants (yes, there was that), there was a random older gentlemen in the back that could not for them life of him harmonize with the rest of us. It was like a tuba being played with a string quartet.

Downward Facing Dog anyone?

Yoga for Athletes - Finally, a yoga for the stiff-bodied souls. Now I could stand to do this class about three times a week. We focused primarily on the hamstrings and IT Bands; the most painful stretching I can do, but the most helpful. I learned some new stretches for my IT Band that I can't do with my foam roller. I would recommend this class to anyone who runs or bikes. There were a lot of warrior poses, vinyasas, and other leg-centric stretching. The good news is that I found out this class is offered as a donation only class. The bad news is that it's only once a week.


Restorative Yoga - This class was actually my wildcard. I had conducted research on the other two beforehand, but for restorative, or deep relaxation yoga, I had decided on a whim to do it because I wanted to relax. Its primary focus is to get you relaxed (mind, body, soul, all that) and ready for sleep. Apparently it was developed as recently as the 1970s and Austin seems to have quite a variety of these classes at the various studios.

Literally what I looked like in Restorative Yoga

... It was relaxing enough in that I was bored out of my mind. I believe we were in there an hour and a half and only did about five positions; each one to be held for extended periods of time. I do like the theory behind it though, and my boredom may be a sign of the times. We... rush and rush until life's no fun... I'm in a hurry and don't know why. Rest and sleep is not something that's usually high on the priority list. Even now, I'm staying up late to make this blog entry.



My end result??? I did have a strange overabundance of energy that evening, but in all likelihood, that was partly caused by all this dark chocolate I ate. And like I mentioned earlier, my arms, legs, and rib meat still ache, but I'm still glad I did it. These were classes I would not have taken had I been required to pay for them, but they were all fun in their own way. I am seriously considering the Yoga for Athletes class as an ongoing thing. The aroma therapy class may just end up being my own private aroma therapy with scented candles in my apartment.