Yoga Loft Sonora

I’m 5 feet 11 inches tall and easily 110 pounds overweight. So practicing Yoga is about the last thing I’d ever do. Yoga is for those with graceful, athletic, lithe bodies. Not for someone with a body more fitted to a couch than a Yoga mat.
That’s what I used to think (and occasionally still do) until I started coming to the Yoga Loft about March of last year. I attend class two to three times a week. In the beginning, it was hard. I was self-conscious about my size and was sure I was being judged. (I was right about the judgment but wrong about who was doing it. It was me and not the instructors or my fellow students.)
By just getting my body to class and doing the best I could do that day (even when it seemed my best was not very much), I’ve made progress, which I measure in small steps:
I have a body. It’s hard to explain, but before Yoga it felt like I didn’t have a body or at least I wasn’t on speaking terms with it. At best, my body felt like an unarticulated blob. And in the beginning of my practice, about the only place I felt sensation was in my lower back. It didn’t matter what pose the class was doing, it seemed as if I felt everything in my lower back. And it wasn’t a pleasant sensation. But that has gone away. I can actually feel the different parts of my body. I have even felt the space between my ribs. I also feel comfortable in my own skin, something I didn’t feel even when I was thin and fit.
I’m taller. My wife noticed it first and got the tape measure out. I’m about a half inch taller and about as tall as I was in high school. It’s because my posture is better. I stand up straight and don’t slouch. I slouched because it hurt to stand erect or my back was too stiff.
I can clasp my hands behind my back. Big deal, right? It really is. In the beginning of my Yoga practice, I could not get my hands within a foot of each other when I tried to clasp them. I can also turn my neck from side to side and see what’s behind me. Before Yoga, my neck was getting stiffer each year and it was starting to feel as if it were bolted to my shoulders.
I feel better. Lots of times I drag myself to class fighting the internal chatter in my mind (you’re too tired to go, you’ve had a long day and need to rest, you’ll go tomorrow, etc.) only to leave class feeling energetic, lighter and in a better mood.
Persistence has become my mantra. Yoga is the cornerstone of my efforts to improve my health. It’s also given me the confidence to try to lose weight. I don’t have to do Yoga perfectly or feel bad because I can’t do a particular pose or go as deep into it as others, I just need to show up.
Kevin Valine