Yoga for Dummies

Last Thursday I took my first Yoga class here in Germany. I have to say, that my body is a little irked at me for not dancing or doing much Yoga since I’ve been here. Yes, I’ll do a down dog from time to time, maybe some sun salutations twice a week, but nothing like I was doing back in the states. So, I enrolled myself in a Yoga class every Thursday evening for 90 minutes here in my village. My neighbor Claudia took me for my first class since I don’t have a car yet and to help me explain to the teacher that my German is nicht so gut. (Read with a hint of sarcasm.) But I’ve got to do something with my body and I figure that since the poses are in Sanskrit, I’ll be just fine. I mean I have spent nearly a quarter of a century in dance classes; I can follow just about anybody.

Let me interrupt myself and say that my German is rapidly improving (only way to go is up!) But I tell you what, I did not understand one word my entire class. Nichts. Nada. Null. Nothing. Ok, not entirely true, I did get ‘Fuss’ (foot) and ‘Augen’ (eyes) and think that ‘aus’ was telling me to breathe out--but that is seriously all. It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, except that the majority of the class was a guided meditation. I’m sure it was brilliant, but I had no clue, and I mean NO clue what was going on.

I did just fine once we got to the physical postures though!

You’d better believe that I’m looking up every German word for parts of the body and anything that has to do with relaxing. This week’s goal—just five words!