My Amazing Body

My body feels amazing.

- and not just to the lucky people close enough to rub up against it on the crowded train. It also feels amazing to me - the person lucky enough to be inside it.

Why is this?

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if it is simply because I have been spending 3 - 4 hours per day running, working out, and yoga-ing recently, or simply because of the yoga. I have a hunch that the yoga plays a big role in it though, because I have gone through long periods of workout in the past and, while I always feel better, I can't say that I felt this dang good.

I feel like water.

While in daily life, as I reach for the cup on the top shelf, my body usually send me pangs of regret-like feelings, thinking to myself "Dang, I gotta stretch more", I now have the feeling of fluidity - not in my bladder (well, sometimes) but in my entire body. I feel as though my body is not even there - I don't even notice that I am moving. This feeling of non-noticing is great.

As for the yoga, I have been intrigued for some time now, and wanted to try it out a few years ago, but it just seemed like a lot of work to fit it into the schedule. I have not taken any classes, so I am most definitely doing it "wrong", but I am using a DVD which seems to fit my purpose.

One thing that intrigued me on an intellecutal level, but at the same time made me extremely skeptical about yoga, is the image of "spiritual-ness" it has. I can tell you the truth when I say that I have never felt the spirits of the earth flow through my body as I do it. I have however, although it is not prescribed in the DVD, concentrated on "feeling" or paying attention to different parts of my body, and what sensations are coming from them - and while it was not the "spirits" of the earth, I have, for the first time, "felt" the points on my feet that exert the most pressure on the floor when I stand, and what a breeze from the open window feels like on my toes, knees, and ....

I think the main benefit from yoga though is that it gives me a program to stretch, and that program reminds me to push it to the limits.

While in the past I stretched when working out, it was usually boring and I had no motivation to stretch more - I was just going through the motions with no specific goal. Listening to that ultra-flexible lady in the DVD, however, telling me to concentrate on stretching my back so that "all the back-bones are pulled further and further" (a rough translation), I am reminded to go the last inch- something I would not do when I was just doing it because "that's what your supposed to do when you work out".

Another indication that having the video to focus my attention on the task at hand is a good thing, is the fact that I can usually go for 40-50 minutes before my mind even begins to wander to "what I have to do today". Somehow, that drone-like voice and the hypnotic music of the DVD have the ability to focus all of my attention on my body, how it feels, and the task at hand.

It has an amazing effect.

Amazing.

That's all I can say.

I find myself totally addicted. Even when I decide not to work out on a given day, in order to get some other stuff done, I can't give up the yoga.