Branching Out
So tonight I attempted to throw off the shackles of attachment to Ashtanga and try something new: hot yoga. I get free yoga classes at pretty much every studio in the city through the company, and there wasn't a class that I felt like taking tonight at Ashtanga Montreal, so I decided to take a class at Moksha, because I've heard really good things about it (albeit mostly from non-yogis/non-ashtangis). Moksha isn't the same as Bikram...it doesn't follow the same sequence or structure, but it certainly is hot. I'm still forming an opinion on the experience, but I can say for certain that I'm not giving up Ashtanga any time soon. What really struck me about it was that it didn't seem like yoga so much as it seemed like an exercise class. There was good focus on alignment and the breath, but still, something was definitely lacking in the "spirituality" end of things, which is fine, as I realise many people aren't into the spiritual part of yoga (i.e. they simply want a work out....which is all well and good, but it isn't yoga).
What really surprised me was how little strength it required...there was little to no upper body strength put to use...we did maybe 6 chaturangas throughout the course of the class...what I would have given for a good vinyasa! I have a tendency to not really feel heat, so although I was sweating like a maniac I wasn't really feeling hot, and I wasn't really challenged physically, but I can certainly see how it can be a great detoxifier...I'll probably go back in the future, maybe fit it in once a week, because it is free after all.
It's definitely good to experience other disciplinces, but I have to say that I am an ashtangi through and through....give me Mysore practice and a room full of ujayii breathing any day...there's nothing better.
Otherwise...slllllllooooooooowww day at work today. R invited me out tomorrow night with some of his friends and maybe some other work people, so hopefully that will work out! Other than that...tomorrow is dinner party night at my house (as was last night incidentally)...I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to fit in tomorrow and what I'm going to have to drop from my schedule. The plan is this: work 9-3, yoga at 6 (J, level 3), people over for dinner then out with R et al. at 10:30-ish...I think that it's a little ambitious though...especially because I'm supposed to be having people over, but if I got to J's class I won't get home until after 8...I really want to go to her class though as long as I'm not too sore tomorrow from the hot yoga (I anticipate some soreness just from the excessive flexibility that the heat provides)...anyway...things will fall into place.
For now it is bed and lots of water.