TEH GRAT YOGA SERCH

[cuddlefish]

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.

Comments

[arete.livejournal.com]

Uh-uh. Back massages are great from someone else because it's from someone else. Human touch--another wonderful drug like sleep, air, and thought.

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

...I like beans myself because they make me toot! :D

Right. This is me, getting serious.

No way, man, it's not about getting someone else to touch me. I mean, having another human do it can really make it feel good, but it can also make it kind of annoying and shitty. My friend once had this sort-of boyfriend thing from a thousand miles away come visit her once and all he did was flirt with all her friends, including me. He tried to give me a back massage and it SUCKED. ROYALLY. On the other hand, sometimes I can get my dad to massage my shoulders for a minute while I'm hunched over in front of the computer, and that actually feels pretty nice, but...c'mon, man, he's my dad. That's weird. So I don't do it that often. I CAN'T do it as often as I could just reach over and tap my fists on my own shoulders or press my thumbs along my spine. (MAN does that feel good.)

I think human touch is great. It's not a supplement, it's a requirement---it feels so good because it's meant to be, not because it's an extra experience. But I don't give up on myself, either.

[arete.livejournal.com]

I guess my view is a little biased right now on massage--I have a guy friend who just loves to massage. And I mean that--a guy *friend*. He kinda wants me as a girlfriend but... his need to touch doesn't come from that. And he gives the best massages in the world... I never got really why people would pay so much for a massage until he gave me a back massage. And maybe that's why I like the human touch part--I'm not touch-starved but I'm pretty damned close. And when it's from someone you trust--who's not a parent--it's nice. Nice in a way that I haven't felt for a while. It's not really about having *someone* touch me so much as someone I *trust* touch me.

I do understand what you mean. Hell, I've been meaning to borrow Adam's (the guy friend) books on foot reflexiology simply to figure out how best to keep my own feet happy. And now I'm going to figure out how to do what you mentioned to my own back... ;-]

[kithal.livejournal.com]

...

sounds like the guy is 90% there already.

Massages? I am continuously told I do them well, but I think it is to make me stop:

"Yes it is goodnowpleasestopIdon'tneedanymorestopstopstop"

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

You're bad at them. (Or it sounds like it.) Sorry.