The latest stop on my ongoing (oft-detoured) journey to “get healthy” has involved taking Pilates and yoga through our local health system (that means “hospital” to us plain folk). I’m almost done with my second 8-week session with the same Pilates instructor — she’s great — and 5 weeks into my first session with the yoga instructor.
The last (and first) time I took yoga was almost 5 years ago — a community college “self-enrichment” class, and I didn’t remember a whole lot about it. But I had high hopes for this one because of my good experience with Pilates.
I’ve been disappointed — the class is so slow-paced. The instructor is nice and inspiring in her own way (she’s 61 and looks 50), but not very dynamic. And while it’s relaxing, I don’t feel I’m getting much of a workout. (In contrast, I sat in on the yoga class my Pilates instructor teaches after my Pilates class and was blown away. Talk about a workout. I’ll be taking her yoga class next time and, sadly, foregoing Pilates — just can’t handle two hours of classes back-to-back.)
One thing the yoga instructor does do is emphasize the mental aspects of yoga. She includes a “meditation” for each session, usually focusing on some aspect of positive thinking or feeling empathy for others or being present as we go through life.
Along those lines, she prefaced last night’s end-of-class meditation period by saying she has a little sign at home that reads:
Don’t believe everything you think.
If I take away nothing else from this yoga class, I’ll always remember that. It’s just the thing for a glass-half-empty, has-to-be-reminded-to-be-positive, needs-to-count-her-blessings kind of thinker like me.
Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.
~ Henry Ford
Writing by Ear 
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