Yoga has recently received much attention in the Fargo Forum (a lot of it negative because so many believe it is inseparable from mysticism), so when my colleague sent an email inviting me to participate in a free Yoga session on campus Friday, I was all over it. I went with a really open mind because, despite numerous opportunities to read about it, I never cared to learn what Yoga might include beyond the poses.
I really enjoyed the meditation and focus-on-breathing aspect of Yoga. Some of the movements baffle me. This is not a new experience. I've dropped out of aerobics classes and hated nearly every moment of any non-machine related regime because I don't get the whole "breath in now while simultaneously bending in half" because that is when I want to breath out! I also can't interpret "pull your navel to your spine" chatter or instructions for other complicated procedures that contort my body. I don't GET it.
I tried everything though. I kept waiting for my back and neck to hurt (Past injury. Hit by drunk driver in AZ. Enough said), but instead, I really felt both energized and calm afterwards. I'll go again!
Two very surreal moments in two days: a friend let me us her mat during the Yoga session. I was supposed to be facing downward (the movement is to stupefyingly complex to describe here), and when I caught sight of the bubbled pattern of the mat, I had a moment of, I guess, vertigo. The pattern was swimming before my eyes and kept shifting as I looked upon it. I could not tell how close I was to the mat and was in serious jeopardy of smacking my nose into the floor. I had to break out of the pose to get my bearings. Ugh. A similar thing happened today after playing Guitar Hero III. I stopped the game, looked at my carpet, and it became a rolling, shifting sea right in front of me. I knew better than to get up. I looked at the TV instead. It grew! This is so weird and hard to describe, but it's like those crazy camera shots in movies, where a character stand still and the camera zooms up to him/her, but all the background seems to shrink as the character gets bigger. Can't think of an example now...will add one when I can.
Update: It is called, fittingly, the vertigo shot. Here are some examples from Youtube.
Thursday's Photo
8 years ago
2 comments:
That happens to me once and a while. I hear it's linked with dehydration, though it happens occasionally when I end up 'coming back' after staring into space for too long as well.
The vertigo on a yoga mat seems wholly unpleasant! I'd hate to experience that sensation anywhere other than a nice, firm, secure chair.
I'm not much of a water drinker so dehydration makes sense.
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