The Power of Yoga
Friday was my first day of school. Well, no classes yet, but all that orientation stuff...I was so afraid that they were going to do cheesy things, like make us all get tangled up in a human knot and "use teamwork to untangle it!" Thank God they didn't...I hate all that BS. Instead they kind of just talked at us for about 5 hours. "This is a really good program..." blah blah blah "This is how you use the computers..." blah blah blah.."This is the dean of the program..." yada yada yada. My program has about 50 people in it, and I got to chat with a number of them. We toured the television studio, the radio studio and the newsroom. I came home feeling pretty uninspired and unenthusiastic about the whole thing. Okay, straight up: I was really down about it. I was really bummed out. But, I'm sure a lot of that was first-day jitters. I had a bit of the jitters too, and I really felt like I wasn't entirely myself the other day. I felt like I stayed in my shell a little bit more than I usually do...and I felt lke for some reason I'd allowed my self-esteem to be undermined by a somewhat intimidating situation (i.e. the first day of school at a new university in a new town).
Anyhow, I came home and was really upset. Down really low. I knew that I couldn't just sit around and wallow, so I decided to take in a class at the local Moksha studio. I walked in all flustered, feeling so...blah...I mentioned to the teacher that I'd taken a few Moksha classes before at the Montreal studio, and she made me feel very welcome by welcoming me to the class and telling everyone in the class about the awesome teachers at the Montreal studio. It was exactly what I needed. It wasn't Ashtanga, but nonetheless, it forced me to breathe and focus and abandon all other thought. I floated out of class. I felt so much better.
All of the sudden I was filled with all kinds of positive thoughts instead of all the negativity that had filled me before class. I got to thinking that even if I don't end up being really social with my classmates (which, admittedly, is quite unlikely...I need to be less critical of people) I'll still have my other friends here: The Dental Students, and my friend the Aspiring Speech Pathologist who emailed me the other day to let me know that she too will be coming to Western in the fall. She was my first friend at McGill. We met each other in line on orientation day and discovered that we were both from that same city and that I'd gone to high school with her brother. And school isn't the only thing in my life, there are other things and people that I love and that will consume my free time: my family, the cottage, Montreal friends (many of whom are moving back to the area in the not too distant future)and of course there's yoga and the community that comes with it...and all the little things I do that make me happ: walking downtown and in the park, cooking, going to the market, settling down with a good book, playing tennis etc. ...so....yeah.
I spent the weekend at home, with my dad, stepmum and brother yesterday and my mum and stepdad today. It was nice to have some time with my family, and it took my mind off the fact that I start school for real tomorrow. Basically I have a full day on Mondays (9:30-4:30) of print journalism, nothing else. But having been at home and in a more normal environment for the past couple days I'm feeling much more myself, and much more confident and prepared for what awaits me.
Happy Mother's Day to both my mums and to all the mothers everywhere who give all of themselves to their families...thank you.