Kindness Yoga recently took over Yoga on 6th- a well known bikram and hot yoga studio. Most of you know how I feel about bikram yoga and that I try to stay as far away from it as possible. For tonight’s workout I decided to try out Kindness’s new location (the old YO6th location) for a hot yoga class.
I was so sure that the schedule said, “hot yoga.” I know that it did because I checked that schedule three times to make sure. But as soon as I saw the instructor walk in with a stopwatch I knew that something was not right, aka bring on the bikram. If I was not doing this challenge, I am guessing that I would have left class as soon as we started the breathing exercises that I don’t understand. If you’re a bikram fan, please do not take offense to this- I just cannot figure out this practice and I do not love the poses. I know that it’s wonderful for tons of people, but not for me.
The whole time I kept thinking, “this is what it must feel like to be a 9-year-old child with a younger sibling and your parent makes you sit on Santa’s knee, so that the younger kiddo does not start to suspect that Santa is imaginary.” You’re probably starting to think I’m crazy now. What I mean is that I felt like I was faking enjoying any part of the practice for the entire 90 minutes in the 105 degree studio. It’s almost Christmas time, hence the Santa analogy, and I felt like a 9-year-old fraud. So maybe I should have been Santa in the analogy? Either way, I completed the class and hightailed it out of there as soon as it was over.
So lesson learned, before class starts make sure to ask the instructor what class it is. Or maybe they could even do what professors in college did to help out new students and say, “welcome to psych 101, if you’re not signed up for this class then please leave now.” It was always funny when that happened, but it gave students a chance to exit a little more gracefully. If you’re an instructor and you’re reading this, you really should consider announcing this to students as a courtesy! Namaste.
365 Days, 365 Workouts 