Opening the Heart

Because Valentine’s Day fell on my regular yoga class, I promised the group an evening of heart opening poses. One woman thought I meant open heart surgery, so I had to change the terminology to widening through the chest. Maybe because of this lingo challenge, I only had four people show up. However, we had a great time. We worked a lot on cobra, tried our best at half moon modified to against the wall and then on our knees and half of the class tried camel.

The physical asana was interesting and felt great, but the really intriguing part was the conversation after the class. When you open the heart in many yoga poses, you are also opening the throat and communication center. I wasn't totally surprised to hear then the things that were shared with me after the class.

They told me about their struggles with weight loss (one woman had had gastric bypass surgery and the other had recently lost 50 pounds) and how these last few months of yoga had given them confidence. Since I could relate, we had a long talk about the weight issues and how yoga can help. It did my heart good to know I have made a small impact on their journey.