Yoga Review

I have been doing yoga for four months now. One of the reasons that I started yoga was a very simple reason: one of my friends who just graduated and moved to Utah gave me her yoga mat! So because I missed her and because the yoga mat was sitting in my apartment and not getting used I decided to give it a try. Four months into it here is a list of some of the poses that are not natural for me:

• Hero's pose: I cannot sit down in between my ankles, period. My muscles will not relax into this pose. I imagine that eventually after a couple of years I will get it. Part of the issue is that my knees aren't used to having the shin bone move sideways.
• Boat pose: My legs always bend and when I try to straighten I just fall over.
• Wheel pose: Oh my goodness. I have a serious fear of this pose. I can do the pose once and maybe twice but after that I freak out and can't hold the pose for very long.
  
• Head stands: Sometimes my mind is too busy and I have to fall down before I can hold the pose and be relaxed.
• Hand stands: I am definitely afraid of holding a head stand. I could do it when I was 8 years old but that was a long time ago.

So that is a list of all the poses that will take time for me to learn. I just discovered that yoga is excellent training for swimming. On Sunday I did butterfly 10 lengths of the pool, I couldn't believe it. Normally I loose my form on the second length and have to struggle just to make it across the pool. My main goal in yoga is to just enjoy being there, I really don't want to start analyzing how I am doing or trying to rate myself or develop some sort of identity. I just want to be there and have fun and relax.