"Freaking awesome!"

Today was a nice rainy and stormy day, and I spent most of it at the yoga studio.  Practice, meeting, desk work, sign-in, practice, more desk work... good times.  I did my second practice at 4:30pm, which was a pretty small class, probably due to the rain.  People in southern California just do not seem to know how to handle real weather!  (The 6:30pm was huge, though.)  There was just one first-timer in the class, a nice average-looking guy in his early 30's or so.  I signed him up before class, and when I asked if he needed a mat or towel or anything, he held up his gear and said, "nope, I called yesterday and found out about everything I had to bring!"  He was so ready to go.

So we start class, and everything is swimmingly along nicely, business as usual.  I wasn't really watching the new guy, but he seemed to be going right along with everything, working pretty seriously and doing a good job.  When we got to "party time" after eagle, the teacher addressed the new guy by name, and asked him how he was doing.  Most people respond to this question with maybe a grunt or a thumbs-up at this point.  But he looked up with a sudden smile and said:

"This is freaking awesome!!"

It absolutely made my day.  My friend who was teaching the class said that it made her year.  I don't think I've ever seen someone express that kind of enthusiasm after their first 30 minutes of Bikram.

Then I thought about it, and remembered, yeah, the first 30 minutes are freaking awesome!  You get to do this crazy breathing exercise that opens your lungs and works them like they've never been worked before.  In the first posture, you get to flex your spine in every direction.  Then you get to work all the big muscles in your legs while working on your balance, and then you get to open up every major joint in your body while standing on one leg.  And you're hot, you're sweating, and your heart and lungs are working like crazy.  Your whole body is awake.  Yeah!!  What a brilliant thing to do!!

Newbie was still just as excited when he finished the class, and I'm pretty sure we'll see him again within the next 24 hours.  There's nothing better than seeing someone get hooked and knowing that all kinds of great things that are about to happen to them.  "Freaking awesome."  I'm still smiling.