Yea for Yoga!

So this week I started taking yoga. My mother-in-law actually bought me 10 yoga classes for my birthday back in September. Having chemo every two weeks didn't exactly allow for me to get started right away. This week has been a great week, so I decided to go ahead and give yoga a shot. Wow!! I had taken Pilate's classes in the past so I was expecting something kind of long the same lines. Wrongo. Yoga is nothing like Pilate's. As I began following the instructors lead, I was amazed by how stiff I was. Sitting down and touching my toes is a thing of the past. I could barely reach my shins. Having been on the couch for the past four month doing nothing physical other than taking my daughter to preschool or running an errand has really taken a toll on my body. I had no idea it was so bad until I started doing yoga. When I saw Dr. Ellis last week he mentioned that I needed to start walking and slowly reconditioning my body. At the time I thought, no big deal, I'll just start walking 3 - 5 miles every morning like I used to. That is not going to be as easy as it sounds unfortunately. However, I am looking forward to slowly regaining my strength and flexibility in the coming months.

In the dictionary, yoga is defined as: 1: a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation
2: a system of exercises for attaining bodily or mental control and well-being.
Each time I left yoga this week I felt so relaxed. I would highly recommend yoga for everyone. It is a great exercise to help reduce stress and help you relax! Go Yoga!!