First Restorative Yoga Experience in These Foolish Things

Last night I did something I’d been wanting to try for a long, long time. I don’t know why I’d never tried it before, but I think that I was finally feeling a kick in the pants to take more care of myself after a few of my previous entries! So I signed up for my first restorative yoga class.

I got to the yoga place early since it was my first class and they told me to arrive a little early to get all signed in and set up. Realized I’d forgotten my yoga mat, but they told me it was no problem. Got signed in and they told me to wait in this little hallway with several cushion-covered benches and doors - the last door on the left was going to be my class. Door was shut as there was an earlier class still in session.

I sat down next to a girl who told me it was also her first time - she’d heard that restorative yoga could help with her Lupus and she said she’d been just feeling pain all over. There were also a few older people milling around and then the girl’s friend showed up and a few more people and then the door opened and the previous class started spilling out.

I made my way to the door as the last few people in the previous class tricked out. And then…

I nearly ran SMACK into Bachelor Party Marty!! Do you remember him? He’s the younger guy I’d had an on-again/off-again FWB-ish relationship with for a few years up until last year when this happened:

The Blocking of Bachelor Party Marty, or “Kicked in the Vagina”.

There we were, standing face to face! The most awkward thing that’s happened to me ALL YEAR. We both said hello and he gave me the most awkward hug and he asked me if I was going to have [instructor] for my class and I was all, “yeah…I’m going to restorative…”

And then he was like, “He’s amazing” and then “good to see you…”

And it shook me, but I needed to get to that fucking class to be RESTORED!

The crazy thing about seeing BPM was that I’d just read the above entry earlier yesterday! After I posted my entry yesterday I noted my On This Day entries and remembered that I was just getting back from my Scotland/England/France adventure a year ago and wanted to relive some of that adventure! And the BPM bullshit happened in the middle of me telling that story! How crazy that I was just thinking about him earlier in the day!

Anyway. The restoring must go on!

I shook it off and the instructor told us about all the props we would need - LOTS of them - and then the class started.

Instructor went around the room asking us each about what was going on with our bodies and when he got to me and I told him of my carotid artery dissection and the fact that I am not comfortable moving my neck around much or putting any pressure on it, the next people were like, oh.

Instructor was cool though. He was like - okay, keep your head straight the whole time.

Bottom line, the class was a series of stretching and opening up and breathing. It was an hour and a half of just relaxing and twisting a bit under blankets and holding those stretches with props and breathing in and out. All through the class the instructor was checking on everyone and slowly adding sandbags for weight or moving our limbs to make sure we were getting the proper stretches.

At one point, he did instruct the class on a neck stretch, but I stopped and he came over and showed me how to adjust and it was fine.

At the end of class I was suuuuuper relaxed and sleepy. It was also my bedtime!

I drove home in a very quiet and contemplative state of bliss.

It took me a little bit of time to get out of my clothes and into my nightie and crawl into bed with the dog, but when I woke up this morning I noticed that my FitBit sleep score had moved into the “GOOD” zone and that I’d gotten a LOT more deep sleep than I normally get - even with a little less sleep. Nothing like improved quality of sleep.

Absolutely will be going back to that class in the near future!

I will admit that I double checked my phone this morning to make sure that Bachelor Party Marty was still blocked on my phone (he was). If I keep going to that studio I’m sure I’ll run into the dude again, but I feel like I can deal with it. It was a shock to see him for the first time, but I definitely feel like I can deal in the future - especially if I can have an hour and a half of amazing relaxation and restoration afterwards again!

Happily,
GS