Silently Falling in Love: Race - #Wattys2017

Chapter 33 - February 1996

Alex

I slipped into the yoga studio where Anjali taught and watched her teach the last half hour of her class. I wasn't going to be able to meet her for lunch tomorrow or the following week so we'd agreed to go to dinner tonight after her yoga class.

I stood hidden so I could watch her without being noticed. I'd never taken a yoga class so I didn't know what to expect or how her class compared to any other class.

Anjali walked around the studio as she called out the poses. "Let's work on our core and developing strength. Sometimes I find it's more difficult to hold one pose for a long time than it is to go through several poses because of the concentration and focus you need. One of my favorite poses to hold is the plank pose. So get into the position as if you're about to do a push up and we're going to hold this pose for over one minute. You might be wondering why I like this pose – so let me enlighten you. When you do this pose properly you are pushing your feet towards the wall behind you while you push your head towards the wall in front of you. You should feel the opposing tug of push and pull of the pose. Keep playing with it until you get the right balance between push and pull."

She continued to walk around and correct several students, sometimes pulling their legs, sometimes straightening their heads, for some positioning the arms directly under the shoulders and having the student straightening them. All the while she continued to talk about the pose.

"While you are definitely pulling the feet and head in opposing directions, you are also pushing your hands into the ground while you push your torso into the air. So once again these are opposing forces. If you're doing this correctly you're focusing on all directions, North, South, East and West. Can you feel the difference when you focus on all of the directions? Play with the pose and shift your focus from one direction to another and observe what you feel. When you get each direction right, you'll feel that you're floating and no direction will stand out. When you hold a pose you get the opportunity to observe and play with it more rather than quickly moving through it."

"How's everyone doing?" Anjali asked as she stood at the back of the yoga studio.

There were a few groans and a few greats.

"Come on 10 more seconds, and now lower yourself down and go back into child's pose."

The students held child pose for a minute or two and then Anjali said, "Okay class is not over yet, so don't get too comfortable yet. We're going to hold another pose where once again we'll be working with opposing forces. Please stand up and get into tree pose. Let's start with standing on our right foot and lifting the left foot to your right inner thigh. If that's too difficult than lower your foot just don't place it near your knee or you risk an injury. Lift your arms above your head and if you can have your hands touch in prayer position. The feet should be planted and grounding into the ground while your arms are reaching for the sky. So you're grounding and reaching at the same time. We'll hold this and then switch to the other leg." She paused to take a breath.

"If you'll notice most of the yoga positions are about balancing opposing forces. You are doing this physically, but this is in essence what Eastern philosophy and religion asks you to do in your life too. So Hinduism which Yoga is based in asks you to balance your opposing feelings, habits, etc. The physical practice of yoga is no different it's just the physical aspect while the spiritual aspect asks you to balance the opposing forces in your life. So while you are holding the physical pose think about what in your life do you need to balance?"

She walked around the room and made adjustments on some of her students as she let her words sink in. I had no idea how well versed Anjali was in yoga and Hindu philosophy.