Yoga did this to me
The sweat that dripped into my eyes caused my vision to blur, and all around me all I could see were the colors of my surroundings. Nothing was clear, and the silence that hung in the air only added to the dream like feel as I lay motionless on my mat. My head rested just above my left shoulder with my arm extended outward and my legs tucked in a lose fetal position.
Laying there was like being suspended in a vacuum. While I could move I didn’t and the only signs of life in my still body could be seen from the slow rise and fall of my ribs as my lungs effortlessly pulled in air. In and out, in and out. I felt nothing, heard little, and felt myself become completely exposed to the world.
I didn’t care that I was weak, I didn’t care that I was vulnerable and unaware; and as I allowed my body to succumb to such a place of complete stillness it released a soft sigh of relief, half involuntary-half intentional and completely necessary.
As the people around my began to shuffle around and exit the room my senses slowly came to clarity one by one. My ears sharpened and the sounds of feet and mats drew a intricate picture of my surroundings. My eyes focused and I could see the light pouring in from the windows, in the distance the trees danced in the air in the cadence of the wind.
I was the last to leave and as I slowly sat up I realized there had only been one other time in my life that I had felt so clear as I did that day laying motionless on the floor of the Yoga studio; and that was the day I was born. That is what Yoga does for you; it brings you back to your innocence and with each practice we are reborn.