Firmly rooted with my feet in the air

Last night I was feeling good. I mean really good. I had no back pain. My head wasn't aching. I was feeling  100% fine. So the moment I had the boys in bed and pretty sure they were asleep I set to work on some new Yoga poses. I have been doing some research and I have been excited about the things that I have found. I have been reading anything I can get my hands on. Thank goodness for the internet. There is a world of knowledge at my fingertips!
What most people refer to as simply "yoga" is actually Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga is a system of yoga introduced by Yogi Swatmarama, a yogic sage in the 15th century in India. This particular system of yoga is the most popular one. The word "hatha" comes from the Sanskrit terms "ha" meaning "sun" and "tha" meaning "moon". Thus, Hatha Yoga is known as the branch of Yoga that unites pairs of opposites referring to the positive (sun) and negative (moon) currents in the system.
 So excited about the things I have been reading up on that I simply had to put them to the test. The web site that I found said, "You might be surprised to learn that your body can actually do things you did not think possible." So I brought up on my computer some beginner poses, grabbed a throw pillow from the couch, and set to work on my mat. I layed down on the floor in the corpse pose first and started working on my breathing and new stretches. Then I was ready for some work. The Beginner poses included opening poses, standing poses, salutations, shoulder and hip exercises, back and forward bends, inversions, twists, and finishing poses. At all times I was very aware of where my feet were. They were flat on the floor, pointed to the ceiling, in the air, above my head, parallel with each other, and even yes...behind my head. At one point my feet were up in the air behind me as I conqured the Plough Pose. This is where you lift your hips up off the floor and bring your legs up, over and beyond your head. I could just imagine one of the kids crawling out of bed right at that moment and finding me on the floor in this crazy possition and asking me what the heck I was doing.
So here I was in this wild pose, concentrating on my breathing, and thinking just how heavy my bottom half is when it's resting on my head when I remembered that the computer said that I would be, "surprised to learn that your body can actually do things you did not think possible." I certainly never saw this pose as possible, but was doing it. I was doing it and it wasn't killing me! Surprise, surprise!
I ended my session with the final corpse pose, breathing and thinking, "Wow! My back doesn't hurt. Wierd." I can do this! This wasn't too bad. This was for beginners???"

So my first time to experience "beginner poses" with Yoga wasn't too bad if I say so myself. I will definitely will be doing this again. I can't wait to get to work on more poses and finding more neat stuff. I feel like a kid in a candy store. It's like I am looking at all the stuff available to me and thinking, "I can have anything want? Really? Then in that case I want to try it all!" I might not like it all but hey! I can't knock it till I've tried it, right? For those of you out there thinking, "Okay Jayme! Slow down and don't get too excited. Yoga can hurt you if you don't know what you're doing." And I know this. I plan to first keep with the beginner program until I have it mastered. Then and only then will I feel comfortable moving to something new.

You know what? I used to run. I was a runner. I could run three miles in 40 minutes and I was happy with that. But then Mark left on his deployment so now 40 minutes to run seems impossible. I can't leave the house for 40 minutes. I can't take my 4 year old to a gym. I don't feel comfortable leaving my kids in a gym day care anymore. (It's a looong story) So being able to do something right here in my own home is a treat. A real happy little gift for me. I like Yoga and I like that I like Yoga. I like that I can find happiness right here on the floor of my own house and relieve my chronic back pain at the same time. So even if Yoga isn't for everybody, it's certainly is now for me. I never would have thought that something so mild like stretching and meditating would be something that my busy brain could handle or even remotely care for but surprise, surprise!  I love it, and I will be doing this again.