Yesterday I participated in my first class at the Y. It was at the one I work at, and the class was in 'Guided Meditation.' The blurb in the program guide says:
"Come unplug and charge up your system. This class consists of light breathing exercises, casual stretch poses, salutations, and flow series. It will end with 10-15 minutes of relaxing meditation."I don't know about all that, but it was good and I'm glad I went. There were 5 of us in the class plus the instructor. I was the only first-timer. Mats were set up with a towel and a block on each.
Before we began, the instructor gave a little detail about the elements of the class. This is really more of a rest and relaxation class. Then he mentioned how, if we think of life as some kind of race to the finish, how would we react if we were told there was, in fact, no finish line? I thought that an interesting thought worth considering...
After some brief stretching on our own, we finally began. We could sit any way we wanted, and I chose to sit cross-legged on the block. We then had 3 sets of 5-minute segments. The first was to try to relax ourselves, the middle to consider what we were grateful for, and the third to go deeper - perhaps in prayer, thankfulness, or however you wanted.
Next we were once again allowed to stretch, then we had a 20-minute session where we lay on the mat with our head on the towel and our feet elevated on the block. This was to be nothing more than a de-stress time. The guy next to me was snoring, and that's okay because napping is encouraged!
I thought I would fall asleep, since I was up at 4 am and worked from 5-9, but I didn't. I actually felt refreshed. I practiced breathing very slowly and deeply, and spent the bulk of my time in prayer.
When the class was over I walked across town to my car, drove home, and ran 5 miles on the treadmill. I felt pretty good. I suppose that means I'm going to be sick today or something. Anyway, I hope to attend this class some more.
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