Power of the Group

Since January, I have been practicing yoga and meditation most mornings. Courtesy of my sister, I have connected with a Kundalini yogi who offers a 45-minute live session at 6 AM. After tuning in and a few warm-ups, she leads us through 20 minutes of breath work, mantra, poses, and mudras (hand movements), and then 15 minutes of meditation. It has been a positive way to start my day, and I feel lucky to have found such a good fit. Sometimes the kriyas, or routines, are a little challenging, and that's okay, too; alone in our spare bedroom (cum-office, cum-guest-room, cum-yoga-studio) I do my best and give myself grace and props just for showing up. 

That's what happened on Friday when we were challenged to hold our arms straight out, one palm up, one palm down, for 5 minutes straight. We were balancing our energy, our hands representing the sun and the moon, (or the light and the dark, or the sky and the earth, feminine and masculine, and so on-- yogi's choice of opposites!), but I confess to dropping my arms a couple of times. 

And my shoulders were still a little bit sore a couple of hours later when one of my students complained of something being hard. "You want to try something really hard?" I asked, rubbing my upper arm. "Listen to what I had to do in my yoga class this morning!"

One thing led to another, and soon my whole class was standing at their seats arms spread open wide with a three minute timer on the board. "What do we get if we can do it?" somebody asked.

"Besides balance and a sense of accomplishment?" I replied, my own arms floating above the floor. "A piece of candy, I guess."

Well! They were in! And with the exception of one student, they all accomplished the challenge. A few minutes later, with jolly ranchers slipped in their mouths behind their masks, they settled down to work, and I was amazed at how quiet, focused, and productive they were.

Right before the bell, as the class was packing up to go, one of the kids asked me if I was going to do the "mindfulness arm thing" with my other classes.

"Yes!" I answered, "because you guys were so great at it."

"But what about your arms?" he responded with concern.

"I'll be fine!" I told him, because I knew there was no way I was going to drop my arms in front of the class. And by the end of the third time I did it? I knew that I could easily go for two more minutes.