You can search the whole universe

and not find a single being more worthy of love than yourself.

Since each and every person is so precious to themselves,

Let the self-respecting harm no other being.

– Buddha

After being a beginner on Monday night with Tammy, for my seventh class, I took Tammy’s HOT Powerful flow on Tuesday night. I find myself at this class a lot because I want the mix of Tammy’s words with hot, sweaty heat with a community that really breathes and flows.

What I have really been enjoying is that Tammy is slowing things down without losing the intensity and energy. Or at least, that’s how it seems to me. We are holding poses longer; digging in deeper. I love it!

As I practice more and more, I realize that the breath truly is the essence of the practice. The breath–my breath–can fill me up so much, it’s quite amazing. When I just breath and flow, I feel like my true self. There is nothing more fulfilling than being me.

And “being me” includes facing things that release themselves during yoga. One pose that really brought the tears was frog. At first, I felt fine–though far from the ground, my hips were already giving me feedback. But as we continued to hold the pose, the thoughts of escaping came in, the desire to run and not let this continue a second longer. But I have been replacing these thoughts with ones like, “You are opening your hip and getting a little bit more length.” I am starting to accept small, even tiny, even unseen amounts of progress.

After a week’s worth of yoga, I can already tell that I want to do yoga every day. It’s like a massage, a glass of wine, and a therapy session all in one. Ahhhh….