First-Time Namaste

on January 24, 2012

I want to continue sharing my enthusiasm for John’s Gym. The first week of BJJ has been eye-opening and mind-blowing, but also very humbling. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to start again as a child in something completely different from what I’m used to, yet still having with me the collective experience, wisdom, and discipline accumulated from my earlier life—not that I have very much of any of those, except maybe some discipline.

Depending on your personality, either starting or finishing will be the hardest part. For me, it’s definitely starting. Once I show up for the first time and decide in my head that I’m going to show up regularly in the future, it’s hard for me to break the chain, and I naturally see things through to the end. I’ve also noticed from recent experiences that once you get used to starting things, it’s not so bad anymore.

In keeping with that theme, I decided to give Power Yoga a shot last night, since it’s included in my membership. I expected it to be packed, which fueled my anxiety, but instead, it turned out to just be six of us: three guys and three girls. And I already knew one of the guys from BJJ! The instructor, Janee, was extremely friendly and welcoming, to the point that I started growing confident in my ability around 15 minutes into the hour-long session. About half way through, I mentally smacked myself in the head for having been so timid: I reminded myself that I am a 23-year-old guy who is reasonably fit and coordinated. I should be able to handle some yoga, even if it happened to be Power Yoga.

But no, ultimately, I did not make it through all the ab-destroying static poses (and probably sounded very inelegant in my heavy breathing and sometimes outright grunting), but yes, I really loved the experience, and was really glad that I decided to just show up for the first time. So I guess I’ll just keep showing up, then. Namaste!