Open your heart, Open your mind

Thursday I had the queen of bad days, not the worst day in the world, but a pretty stressful day. On top of that I was supposed to wait until the last minute to see if my friend was coming over for her Ashtanga lesson. I don't really do well with waiting until the last minute types of deals. So I called her and left two messages and said that I felt that I needed to take the time to do my own practice and I really felt the need to be in Donna's class. Whenever I feel stressed and anxious I always want to go to Donna's class - like it is a safe haven, no matter how challenging it can be. We ended up doing a lot of backbends and doing partner drop backs and when I left I had the feeling that it was exactly what I had needed - to open up my heart and to let go all of the stress and tension of the day.
Friday was a late afternoon hot and sweaty Ashtanga class. I practiced next to Amanda. We practiced at a good pace and the flow was excellent. The flow was excellent and the heat made me feel very flexible and loose. Tom qued us at the beginning to relax our shoulders and neck and he only had to correct me once. It was a good practice.
Saturday I came to the studio and observed Tom's and Donna's vinyasa classes. After Tom's class I chatted with a couple of the students. One who had been injured I told her that she was looking good as she came back. Another student who maybe struggles with her yogic "identity" I told her that she had a beautiful practice and that I could tell that she was present in all of her poses and I told her that she might want to think about taking the teacher training. She beamed when I told her this and I was glad that I had taken the time to give her some encouragement. I snuck into Donna's class a little late and watched a bunch of my peers both from teacher training and Ashtanga. They started working into my favorite pose which I think is called Golukasana. When Donna asked if anyone had ever come into it from headstand no one had, so she asked if I would demonstrate even though I wasn't warmed up. So I went up to her mat and she talked me through it and I did an adequate job. Then I was observing and Rita asked if I would help her. She got tired and another girl asked if I would help her. At one point I ended up demonstrating a headstand on the hardwood floor, which I had seen other teachers do. It was so fun.
After class I ran into Donna behind the studio and she asked me how I had managed how to become so relaxed and happy and easy going and I said I really didn't know. I attributed it to working with Bhuddism and practicing and just trying to do the work. I'm looking forward to whatever the future holds.