Being bendy

The switch to a full-time yoga regimen is going well thus far, you'll be glad to know. I do not miss the dumbells, the humid weight room, the grunting lifters of the Y. Now that I am fully immersed in this new yoga environment - the polished hardwood floors, the images of gods and goddesses, the quiet pad of bare feet - I feel as if I have found a place where I am more at home with myself.

I have also discovered a more profound love of the yoga practice.

My great love of yoga first grew from the closer relationship it cultivated between my mind and my body. When I practice yoga, it's the quality time that I spend with my body. I listen to its movements, its creaks, and its purrs with great patience and bemusement.

Yes, bemusement. Because when I practice yoga, I am not forcing my body to perform in a certain manner - I am merely asking it to do its best. If my arm decides that it doesn't want to slide in one particular direction, I respect its wishes. If my body coquettishly whispers that perhaps it would be amenable to trying something new, I breathe more deeply and take the stretch as far as I can.

This new, deeper love of yoga comes from the fact that I am becoming more in tune with the inner workings and rhythms of my body. If the instructor asks us to "push our inner heels back", I know what she means. If she asks us to "move your sitsbones apart", I can visualise that too. Whether or not I can successfully accomplish said task depends on the day, the time of day, and the stretchiness of my pants, but I can intuitively understand what I'm supposed to be doing.

And I am always improving.

In fact, lately, while practicing yoga, my body feels like a piano, and when I play the right notes - when I succeed in folding my shoulder blades just so - the stretch resounds in my body with notes as deep and sonorous as a real instrument.

While I am practicing yoga, my body has ceased to be the often-mutinous ship that I ride through life. She is a friend that I cherish and respect... even if she doesn't always listen to me.