Om-en

I went to the far away yoga last night because I have 7 classes left to use on a class pass in not many more days.

These yoga classes sometimes feel a lot like church with exercises. Especially the ones on Sunday mornings, but a lot of the other ones, too. What with the chanting and the energy of all these people moving and breathing together, it can become a very intense and emotional experience that could definitely be confused with something spiritual. The fact that the far away yoga (Yoga Tree in the Castro - 20 min bike ride each way) draws such a large crowd (over 100 people sometimes, maybe more) seems to magnify that, too.

Last night, it was packed. I got there oh just a few minutes late and stepped quietly into the very large studio just as they were starting the chanting. I gazed around the room and I swear to you I could not see a square inch of floor: it was mat to mat. I expected they were going to have to turn me away, but the class assistant crept over towards me during the chanting and indicated that he would help me find a spot after the pranayama (breathing exercises) which made me excited because I was about to see a magic trick.

I watched his experienced eye scan the room slowly and then lock on a row that looked to me pretty much as full as any other row. After the breathing exercise he walked me over there and made about 12 people all squeeze even more tightly together so that I could wedge my mat into the newly created space. My mat was touching the mats on either side of me.

I guess the magic part was when I tried to pretend that I hadn't gotten any irritated looks from my new neighbors as we launched together into the practice.

After a few minutes of downward facing warm-ups we did our first standing pose and I will it admit it was quite extraordinary to see all those human bodies joining together in Warrior 1 to the sound of Krishna Das (who, I will also admit, I am a total sucker for).

I was moved.

If going to church were this effective at core strenthening and muscle toning, I would have gotten a religion membership a long time ago.