This Is What Great Yoga Feels Like

There’s more to yoga than tree poses and downward dogs

Illustration by Cynthia Marinakos.

W e enter by the side gate, being careful not to park across from each other on the narrow residential road.

There are 2 rooms. One for yoga. The other for gathering after yoga.

We slip off our shoes and open the glass sliding doors to the gathering room to drop off our coats, keys, and phones. We pick up our props — any combination of blanket, weight ball, strap, and bolster.

Then we quickly tiptoe barefoot into the yoga room — minimizing the time our feet spends on the cold path.

I walk in, my mind often filled with thoughts of the day’s deadlines. Crankiness from the struggle to get my daughter ready for school. And exhaustion from going to bed too late.

These feelings and thoughts remain as I sit cross-legged on the mat.

They battle on in my mind as we begin a short meditation.

They continue even as we begin our first stretch.

I breathe in the smell of citrus wafting around the room from the diffuser. My mind gets caught up in the power of gentle music. And I gradually let…