Heart

Wow! Sometimes our yoga teacher training sessions really are like a huge therapy sessions...we all open up, like in an AA meeting. I find it so powerful; sometimes exhausting, emotionally, but so, so good.
Today we had to share our midterm assessments. We did not have to read what we wrote, but somehow share and then all discuss. I had a lot of anxiety about my paper, but I was proud of my honest assessment. I knew that I would be emotional during my turn to share, so I volunteered to go FIRST, and to just read my paper.

When I finished reading, the class actually clapped. People seemed so touched by what I wrote. My classmates told me it was beautiful, lovely, amazing.  Their words, not mine!

It felt so good to share.
Can my yoga be my therapy? I'm beginning to think so.

This weekend was also big for me in that I did my first wheel pose. Normally, I would tell myself I do not like back bends; I feel like I am going to break in half!!
 But with my new-found openness and confidence from the day, instead of staying in bridge, I listened carefully to the instruction and went for it.
AND I DID IT!! AND I DID CORRECTLY according to the instructor. And in those few seconds, I have never felt more free. Everything opened.  It was a huge rush of feel-good chemicals and I felt as if my smile was deep down into my chest. I was smiling from the inside out, illuminating from my heart and chest area.

(Not me, but found on google images to show)

Has anyone ever felt this way before during a back bend? I think it's because I've been so closed off to the idea and generally like a rounded forward fold. This was the opposite. And it was so good!