It took me forever to get there yesterday, but I made it to the 4pm class in Ventura last night and the 11am this morning and had two awesome classes. It felt ridiculously good to practice again (and I was decently strong, for me, but I was also super bendy, which was a pleasant surprise). I missed a total of 3 days of yoga this week - HARDLY a catastrophe - but I missed it so much. Couldn't focus, couldn't settle down, couldn't sleep, couldn't wake up. Pretty weird!
I was stretching out before class this morning, doing a couple backbends, and the woman on the mat next to me asked how long I'd been practicing. I told her I'd been coming regularly for almost 2 years now (and by the way, when the hell did that happen?!) and she said "wow, so have you seen a lot of benefits?" All I could think of to say was, "YES."
The truth is, I don't even know where I would be right now or what I would be like without this yoga in my life. All the neuroses I would still be holding on to, all the bad habits and patterns... how bad would they be? Which problems have I eliminated by doing this yoga, and which ones am I just constantly holding at bay? That's a slightly unsettling idea. One thing Bikram always says is that the yoga is only a "cure" for disease in the sense that, if you do it consistently, it will relieve your symptoms, and if you stop doing it, your symptoms will come back.
It's not like I had an awful life without yoga, but without going into detail, I have to say that it is a lot better with the yoga. I'm not really interested in me-without-yoga. Sure, I could definitely live without it. I could also live without showering or brushing my teeth. But that would just be unpleasant for everyone. With is definitely better. It's a good life. :)
