Go with the flow

So I don’t know how much I’ve talked about my past history of dance on here. I’ve got a whole blog about it, I just don’t really update it anymore seeing as how I don’t dance anymore.

Anyways, a little background. I started ballet when I was about 13/14 years old, when I started high school basically. I fell in love with ballet. My senior year of high school, I went through a mini-crisis because I loved ballet so much, I wanted to make it my career. But because of the age when I started, I didn’t have the necessary training to make that feasible.

So ultimately, I decided to go to college. I took a modern dance class autumn quarter of my freshman year, but I haven’t danced since.

So that ship has sailed, but I still have the desire to dance, or to pursue something similar.

Actually, I watched the documentary First Position recently, which came out in 2011, and I realized, I don’t really have the desire to be a professional ballerina anymore. Yes, I still love ballet and enjoy watching it. Yes, I wish I could dance as well as the professionals do. Yes, I wish I would’ve started ballet earlier in life so that that dream might have been reality. But, like I said, that ship has sailed now.

But I still want to do something.

Well, I have decided only recently (really after watching that documentary), that I want that something to be yoga.

I did take some yoga classes when I was dancing, and I’ve recently resumed yoga classes as well. And I think my love for ballet has been transferred on to yoga.

See, I don’t think my love and desire to excel at ballet truly comes from a love for ballet. I think it stems from the fact that I’ve never been good at physical things. I’ve always wanted to excel at something that involves my body, purely because it is so challenging for me to do so. I am not athletically gifted, and ballet was the first physical outlet where I really felt it was possible to be good.

But I think yoga is a better option for me at this point in my life rather than dance. There’s several reasons:
1.) There are no age limits with yoga. Unfortunately, the level and amount of training I wanted with ballet is not readily available for people my age. At my old studio, I was routinely taking class with middle schoolers. While I don’t have a problem with that, yoga is still offered much more frequently at much more advanced levels for adults than ballet ever is.
2.) Yoga is cheaper (kind of). Okay, in reality, yoga is not cheaper than dance. But because I’m a college student at OSU, I can take yoga classes for free at our gym fairly regularly. If I wanted to take the same amount of classes in dance, I would have to go to an outside studio which would cost a ton of money I don’t have. Yes, if I do eventually decide to further my yoga practice, I’ll have to go to an expensive outside studio, but that won’t be for a couple of year probably.
3.) I really identify with the spiritual aspect of yoga as well, being that I’m a Buddhist and all. It resonates a lot more with me than it did back in high school.

But yeah. Those are the main reasons why I really want to devote myself to yoga. There are others, but I just can’t think of them right now. Haha. Yoga just seems like a perfect solution to all of my desires. Not to mention, I sort of have an obsession with flexibility and yoga also offers a way to better my flexibility.

So I’m super excited now. I’ve made my schedule for next semester which includes yoga 3 days a week plus 1 Pilates class. I wish I could take more, but those are the only ones that fit with my work and school schedule. But I think 3 days a week is enough. That’s a big jump compared with the 1 day a week I took this semester.

But I’m excited and committed. I know I can become great at yoga if I really devote myself to it. And I know it will really have a positive impact on my life. Not only will I get more in shape, it will also improve my mental state. I like to look at yoga as a form of Buddhist meditation. It’s very relaxing and really helps me focus. And at the end of the class, when we lay down and relax, I sometimes even like to say Buddhist chants in my head.

And it’ll hopefully help me improve my flexibility. I have always struggled to be flexible, even when I was dancing it was difficult. Luckily, yoga has about the same emphasis on flexibility that dance does. I am really determined to learn how to do the splits. It’s a goal I’ve had for years now, and I’m going to make it happen.

But yeah, I just had to share this. It’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last couple of hours: as I planned my schedule and spent some time looking at yoga clothes on amazon. Haha.

Hooray for yoga!!