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Here's a confession: I took yoga for five years. This does not mean I'm a pretzel. In fact, I'm a rather mediocre pretzel. I don't think I'm fit for human consumption. But I CAN hold my breath for a long time. (My best record is 90 seconds.)
This happened at the beginning of every one of my Japanese classes. Stretches, breathing exercises, and meditation for about half an hour. There was also some chanting, which I'm always trying to remember because it sounded kind of cool. You can probably tell that I was never sure what any of it meant, but I did remember a lot of it. One set of sounds I remembered was "プラナヤマと" "puranayama to,"
So four or five years later, I was sitting around wondering if yoga would make me feel a little healthier, and I thought I'd look up some poses and things to refresh my memory. (I feel like Minori taught me around 20 poses, and I remember how to do them all, I'm just not sure which ones they are.) I'm a little girl, who, looking at a really basic Yoga for beginners page, saw the word for breathing exercises, "pranayama" and MADE THE CONNECTION. HAR HAR.
Mostly for my reference, a page with the chants I used to know, and then some weird religious austerity stuff linked off of it. Run awaaaay.
By the way, I'm pretty sure it was Kundalini yoga with some other New-Age energy business, and some self-massage. Because if there's anything better than someone who can give you a back massage, it's being able to give one to yourself.
This happened at the beginning of every one of my Japanese classes. Stretches, breathing exercises, and meditation for about half an hour. There was also some chanting, which I'm always trying to remember because it sounded kind of cool. You can probably tell that I was never sure what any of it meant, but I did remember a lot of it. One set of sounds I remembered was "プラナヤマと" "puranayama to,"
So four or five years later, I was sitting around wondering if yoga would make me feel a little healthier, and I thought I'd look up some poses and things to refresh my memory. (I feel like Minori taught me around 20 poses, and I remember how to do them all, I'm just not sure which ones they are.) I'm a little girl, who, looking at a really basic Yoga for beginners page, saw the word for breathing exercises, "pranayama" and MADE THE CONNECTION. HAR HAR.
Mostly for my reference, a page with the chants I used to know, and then some weird religious austerity stuff linked off of it. Run awaaaay.
By the way, I'm pretty sure it was Kundalini yoga with some other New-Age energy business, and some self-massage. Because if there's anything better than someone who can give you a back massage, it's being able to give one to yourself.
