Yoga walk of shame and learning to listen to my body

I woke up at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning with a rumbling stomach.  I went to the bathroom and then back to sleep for a while.  I still wasn’t feeling well when my alarm went off at 10.  Back to the bathroom and then a mental argument with myself began.

Me:  We shouldn’t go to yoga this morning.  Our tummy is not good.

Also me:  But this is our sixth week in a row.  We’ve never committed to anything this long.  We have to go.

Me again:  We’re sick.

Still me: We can handle it.  We have to at least try. 

And so I went to yoga.

A local brewery hosts yoga at 11 on Sunday mornings.  I frequently hang with friends at this brewery despite hating almost all beer.  I walked in, stomach rumbling, and the cute, young bartender immediately said, “Hey, Rachael!”

He knew my name. I played it cool and casually said “hey” back, but I was giddy like a 12-year-old girl inside.

I chose a spot next to the giant Christmas tree.  It was a substitute yoga instructor.  She didn’t know to tell the bartender to turn off the loud rock music. I couldn’t hear her when class started and had to look to the other students to know what to do.

This instructor started at a higher level than I’m used to with planks and downward dogs galore right off the bat.  I had to stop and rush to the bathroom 20 minutes in, passing the cute bartender on my way.  I’ll spare you the details, but I was in there at least 10 minutes.  Someone else came in, did their business and then shut the light off as they left so I had to finish up in the dark.

I decided to go back to my mat and give it another try.  They were doing warrior poses with downward dogs in between.  I called it on the second downward dog. All of the movement, plus the loud music and smell of the pine tree was too much for my queasy system.  I rolled up my mat, slipped on my flip flops and did the walk of shame past the bar again.

“No kombucha today?” the cute bartender asked.  “Not today,” I replied as I kept walking.

I’ve been doing a great job getting myself to yoga.  That was my sixth consecutive week, which is a really big deal for me!  Yoga is great self care.  But so is listening to my body.  I tried it.  My body wasn’t having it.  I respected that.  Listening to and respecting my body are also new.

I like this life where I’m a regular at brewery and have my name known by cute bartenders because I spend my time there laughing with friends, doing yoga and drinking kombucha.