Day 402: Hot Yoga Ninja

actual yoga ninja #1

I is a hot yoga ninja, yeah? Phoooooo! Hot Bikram yoga for the first time ever tonight, in Bristol. Never having been before, I had nothing to compare it to, but according to some of the sweaty ladies in the changing rooms, it was a particularly hot one this evening. And the best bit? I read the website to see what to wear. It said ‘avoid loose-fitting clothes’ and ‘most women wear shorts or leggings’. Well… I only had loose-fitting sport trousers with me, apart from my HEATTECH THERMAL LEGGINGS. So that’s what I wore. Highly effective thermal underwear in a hot yoga class. Well DONE! Fool.

actual yoga ninja #2

I liked it. I didn’t feel sick and I didn’t get dizzy until right at the end when I was trying to leave. I stood up and sat down a good few times at that point until my head could stay with me long enough to get me out of the door. I was redder than a thing that’s entirely red, with no other colour at all in it. And now my skin feels outrageously soft and smooth all over. Very nice.

Once again, my teenage self would have been mortified. I went to the supermarket with that overcooked face on, blaring out like a ghetto blaster – LOOK AT ME! I’VE EXERTED MYSELF! But what can you do?

like this, only sweatier

I really seem to like endurance things like that. I've always loved a good sweat lodge, where as saunas and steam rooms, while pleasant, lack purpose. I love about a sweat lodge that you sing and drum and pray and that your job, your endurance feat, is to stay there, stay present and stay sitting up. Once you're in, you can't leave for that round, I think - you could only lie down and try and escape the height of the heat. But if you centre yourself and focus and sing out, you can really find a place that's calm and cool despite the intense heat. I love it. My first experience of Bikram was nowhere near that spiritual, but it was pleasing, in a challenging and beetroot-faced kind of way.

post yoga brain

My only regret today is that I didn’t quite make it (ha – quite! You either make it or you don’t) to the pond this morning. It had snowed and from inside, the outside looked bright and bitter. I was late and I had a skype call booked, so I skipped the pond and ate breakfast instead. When I finally got outside, I found the air to be kinder than I had imagined. And the water? What does it matter? The water feels cold. That’s just true. The endorphin rush afterwards feels amazing. The weather has very little to do with that part of things and much more to do with aesthetics. I loved being buffeted this autumn and being surrounded by leaves. I adore swimming in the rain (the fatter the drops, the better). I’m humbled when the sun and the moon share the sky, or when there’s happy, lifted light all around. Quite cold or very cold is by the by at that point. The contrast would have been good. Next time.

my sophisticated friend

Skype with the delectable, outrageously good Victoria Sandison this morning - bumped from yesterday when it turns out I just made a mistake… That was just lovely. A whole hour with her face and her news and her brilliance. She has a new job, you know. I’m everso pleased for her and I like her very much.

And I received a lovely, warm, huggy and genuinely wonderful welcome at Power Train today. Lucy is a pleasure, always. I do like her. I bumped into Jill in the street and had a really good chat. Michelle, Rebecca, Claire... so many more. New (to me) Lisa and Chris.  And Aly - how lovely. She said a lovely thing - firstly, that she'd come to a yoga class that I put on and to explain that, she said she felt calm and peaceful just talking to me, as a general thing (which is funny, because I often get giddy and silly with Aly). Thank you, beautiful lady.

Thank you for lovely Fox emails that made me smile a bit too much (even in the street. Even in the yoga class!). Still smiling.