Yoga - Korean style

Well I did it. I pulled myself away from the world of streaming long enough to post. One of the things that I have learned this last 18 months in Korea is how to waste time. I am amazing at wasting time. Reading through my daily list of blogs, emailing, surfing, facebook, true blood, solitaire, project runway, daydreaming... ahh daydreaming. But here I am blogged up and ready to write.

I love my new yoga studio! I mean love love love it. Like dog-ass tired drag myself out of my after school nappy haze to take a class, love it. And get this, I don't even understand it, well, the language of it anyways. I have found this gem of a studio not too far from my apartment that teaches an open class three days a week. There is nothing fancy about this studio, just one big open room filled with real people who just love yoga. I'm surrounded by scrunchies, baggy pants and oversize t's. No lululemons, no ego, just straight up heart. And, I'm home.

Each class starts with the instructor bringing us to a seated position at the front of our mats. We close our eyes and she takes us through what i am assuming is a guided meditation/ intention setting to set us in the mood for what's to come. I don't understand a word (as the class is taught entirely in Korean) but as I sit there this is what I imagine her to be saying:

"Let go of your day. Let go of your expectations. Come into your breath. Come into your body. Shawna, stop thinking. Tune into yourself and into one another. Let your breath and your body be your guide. Shawna, stop thinking. Move from the heart..."

And so we sit there for about 5 minutes working to find our calm. And then the movements begin. I have had an on again off again relationship with yoga for quite some time now and I considered myself to be quite familiar with the asana portion of the practise. But without fail, every class I am introduced to something new. Did I mention that I love this class? In a totally unpredictable way we go through about 50 minutes of a mix of standing and seated postures. And after a short shivasana we come back to that seated position in which we began.

At this point, and this is my favourite part, we begin to give ourselves a mini massage. Rubbing our necks, our bellies, our chest and anywhere else you feel needs the attention. And then as if in an act to physically rid ourselves of anything that we weren't able to leave on the mat we begin to brush our hands across our chest and shoulders as if to brush of any remaining burden from the day. When we feel sufficiently cleansed we bring our hands to prayer and give our thanks. Thanks to our teacher, thanks to ourselves, thanks to the wonderful practise that is yoga.

Namaste