Hot Yoga

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Originally Posted by Crankin

Yes, I am OK with rudimentary, tourist Spanish. But, whenever I need a verb (or a different tense) I cannot answer or participate in a conversation! I can usually understand through context. DH and I really want to do an immersion program for at least 2-3 weeks. But, at least I can go into a store and get by in Spanish. When we rented the apt. in Italy, I was totally illiterate and did not understand that you need to weigh your produce and put a price on it before you bring it to the cashier. The cashier started yelling at me, so i just said "No parlo Italiano," and she took me by the hand and showed me. I felt horrible. Lots of profuse "Grazie, Signora," from me!

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I totally get that! There is nothing like being treated like a six year old to make one feel humbled. It has happened to me on quite a few occasions here in Mexico, and it is tough. I pride myself on being competent and on top of things most of the time, but not speaking the language well has a way of making my self-esteem take a real hit. OTOH, on the rare occasions when I do manage to understand, answer a question, whatever, I feel great! I've learned SO much since beginning with ZIP Spanish (I studied French in high school), but the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. Verb tenses, yeah, forget it. I am lucky if I just know the verb at all.

Another thing that makes it even worse for me is that I have pretty high levels of social anxiety. So while I can do my online Spanish classes by myself with a reasonable degree of proficiency, put me into a situation where I'm dealing with actual human beings, and I turn into a mono-syllabic stutterer. This makes living here more of a challenge to me than it might be to someone who is not so anxious in social situations.

It's a good way to understand how immigrants feel. Humbled isn't a strong enough word! I did fine in Spain, for what i needed to do (even was able to go into a drugstore and get the woman to understand I needed sun block) and to point out an issue with the clerk in a store where DH was buying jeans. But, I want to be able to converse. I am good with languages, but after so many years of not using Spanish, which I did in Florida and AZ, I've lost a lot. I used to go to meetings with parents who needed a translator when I was teaching; I would be able to follow his conversation with the parents and I would want to say something, but I couldn't. It usually came out as a 2 word six year old type statement. Of course, they were thrilled that a teacher was trying to speak to them in Spanish, but it made me feel stupid. And forget the Portuguese speaking parents. After 8 years of teaching in a district with a large Brazilian population, the only word I learned was obrigado.
Back to yoga.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

But, I want to be able to converse.

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YES! This is me. And you're right, this is very eye-opening re. what immigrants to the US or any country experience.

As for yoga, I haven't been since last Friday since we took a short trip Mon-Wed (and I go MWF), so I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow and sweating it out. Whenever I take even a week off, I get sore again, so I am sure I will!

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

YES! This is me. And you're right, this is very eye-opening re. what immigrants to the US or any country experience.

As for yoga, I haven't been since last Friday since we took a short trip Mon-Wed (and I go MWF), so I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow and sweating it out. Whenever I take even a week off, I get sore again, so I am sure I will!

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Hola!

Just kidding. I went to a special class last night just on pranayama. It is part of the studio's community program. It was pretty cool. Not a lot of "yoga" yoga, but i learned a ton of cool stuff beyond 3 part breath.

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Originally Posted by rocknrollgirl

Hola!

Just kidding. I went to a special class last night just on pranayama. It is part of the studio's community program. It was pretty cool. Not a lot of "yoga" yoga, but i learned a ton of cool stuff beyond 3 part breath.

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That sounds great! My maestro is really, really big on pranayama. We do a lot of different breath patterns in our practice. Today, when we were doing one of the patterns right before savasana, sweat was dripping down my face, over my lips, down my back, down my chest, and it was all I could do to sit, eyes closed, without wiping it off. It was VERY hot and humid today, well above average for late October here, and I was dying. I read an article in the past couple of days about why you sweat more immediately after finishing exercising than during the exercise, and I guess that's what applied here, since I seemed to sweat even more during the "relaxing" part of the practice at the end.

How someone could voluntarily subject themselves to bikram (hot) yoga, I don't know! :confused:

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

How someone could voluntarily subject themselves to bikram (hot) yoga, I don't know! :confused:

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That would be me! It gets so cold & damp here in the fall and winter that it just seeps into your bones. I literally ache from the damp & cold here sometimes and I don't have arthritis. Hot yoga warms me like nothing else can.

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Originally Posted by VeganBikeChick

That would be me! It gets so cold & damp here in the fall and winter that it just seeps into your bones. I literally ache from the damp & cold here sometimes and I don't have arthritis. Hot yoga warms me like nothing else can.

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That does make sense, Crankin! I guess it's been so long since I've experienced that kind of chilliness that it is hard to imagine. I am sure walking into a hot yoga studio would feel pretty darn nice in your climate, at least for part of the year. Since it's so hot here, there is no more welcome feeling to me than walking into an air-conditioned space, like a store.

I went to a regular yoga class at the new (old) gym this moring, to help recover from my metric yesterday. A lot of the same faces as 6 years ago, but not all. The instructor was the one who seems to be on the schedule the most. I was a little nervous, but there wasn't any pose that I never had tried before. Got a bit nervous when she put on the space heater; the room is cold, but I always keep a LS shirt or sweatshirt on over my top for awhile. The class wasn't advertised as hot yoga, either. So, about 3/4 through I did start feeling warm, but not the weird, dizzy feeling I get from exercising in the heat. I was mindful about the transitions from being on the floor to standing (this invokes dizziness sometimes), and it was fine. The room never got "hot," and it certainly wasn't 90 degrees. The class itself was perfect, no nonsense, lots of warm up, and there was only one thing I couldn't do, which was Crow pose, on my right side. This is always hard for me, but she got us into it in a different way, and I didn't realize what she was doing. Next time, I will know. Not too much talking from her, and not too much "head" stuff, just the right balance. And, I tried to ignore the big mouthed wife of a cyclist who started riding around the time I did. He always wore a ripped tee short to spin class, bought bikes that were super expensive for his level, and complained that he couldn't climb. She was monopolizing the conversation before class, outside room, including telling me "she's running late," 3 times, as I was attempting to walk past her, to get away from the crowd. She thought I was trying to enter the studio, which of course, I was not, so I finally said, "I get it." But, once I walked in the room, it was clear I haven't lost too much of my yoga skills from practicing at home, and it was quite peaceful.

That's great, Crankin! Glad you had a good practice. Ours was so difficult on Friday and bothered my back, that I almost didn't re-up for another month (which is a great price -- 600 pesos (around $37 US) for unlimited classes for four weeks). I finally decided that the reason it was so hard was because I'd taken a week off while we were taking a short trip AND it was unusually humid that day, so I sweated even more than usual, making it super uncomfortable. Tomorrow is my next practice, and I am staying upbeat and hopeful that it will be a better one! I was so sore yesterday from Friday's practice, but today am back to normal, so hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things this week. Travel always throws me off.

I'm laughing about my misfortune in getting a killer cold as soon as I signed up for a membership at my studio. Haven't been able to go for a week now. What the eff, universe?

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Originally Posted by VeganBikeChick

I'm laughing about my misfortune in getting a killer cold as soon as I signed up for a membership at my studio. Haven't been able to go for a week now. What the eff, universe?

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Bummer! That happened to me last winter. I got so sick with such a bad cold that I had to miss two of my four weeks in my monthly membership. I finally ended up emailing the teacher to see if I could tack on two weeks to the end, and he was totally fine with that! Perhaps yours would be as well. I think it helped that I had already been coming for a couple months very consistently so he could see I wasn't a total slacker trying to pull one over on him.

Hope you feel better soon!

Thanks Emily! I never get sick so when I do I'm a big whiner. That's a great idea and I'll see if the studio will let me do that.

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Originally Posted by VeganBikeChick

Thanks Emily! I never get sick so when I do I'm a big whiner. That's a great idea and I'll see if the studio will let me do that.

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Good luck! I hope they'll be understanding.

Sounds like everyone is really enjoying their practice. I am so glad we started this thread! I am off this week so I got to go to an early morning class at 5:45 on Monday morning. It is hot, but only and hour and the teacher is SO fun and a bit crazy. We did a lot of laughing. At the end she got us in a handstand on the wall and had us hold it. I was the last one up and as soon I got up there I said...start counting...quick! So fun.

Today I am going to a gentle class after I finish some grading and chase some free range dust bunnies.

Namaste!

Yes, this is a great thread!

Today I truly felt like I was in a hot yoga class as I was just dripping from every pore. It was raining lightly during much of the practice and so humid. For some reason I was really shaky today on all the one-legged stuff and even fell right down at one point (so embarrassing!) I have no idea why, but I was sweating so hard and really struggling with the heat, I guess.

Near the end when we were stretching, I turned towards the sliding door behind me on a twisting stretch, and there was a rainbow outside! The instructor saw it at the same moment I did and and said that there was an "arco iris" (the Spanish words for rainbow). It brought a smile to my face and ended the challenging practice on a great note. :)