Something happened during my practice a few days back. It was my second day of doing both an Ashtanga practice in the morning and a 90 minutes Flow class in the evening. It was a challenging class (as always) but fun and I felt so good. It’s the closest I’ve reached to a “yoga high” comparable to a “tango high”. If you have no idea what I’m talking about you can read in one of my first blog posts about when I was a tango dancer. Or maybe I’m still a tango dancer just in hibernation.
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It was maybe an hour after the class started. Slowly the voice of the teacher seemed to become more silent. This was of course not true but just my perception of it. His voice became more distant and I became more aware of the energy in the room, the temperature, and everyone’s breathing. It was during the warrior poses where we usually shift from Virabhadrasana 2 into 3 or some reversed (Viparita) warrior pose.
It was like I was moving outside of my body, everything slowed down and I seemed to move in slow motion. Although I’m sure I moved in the same pace as before, just the sensation of it. I became really aware of my breathing and suddenly felt really strong. No struggle, no pain, just very sharp in my mind, light in the body, strong breathing and I remember I observed the skin on my arms. The muscles under my skin. And I just enjoyed being in this kind of rushed state.
Perhaps this feeling lasted for 5 or 10 minutes but it seemed so long. It was a great feeling where I became something else, I felt something else than in normal life. So I’ll call it a yoga high. This is what I’ve been looking for, it’s such a nice feeling to reach that kind of awareness. I knew it was possible through yoga and here is the proof. It was different from tango. In tango dancing, it’s more of a floating feeling when you don’t seem to have any more legs or friction with your feet against the floor. In yoga, you become this moving being of energy, strength, and breath.
After those 10 minutes, I came back to my “normal” senses again but still so uplifted by the feelings I just had. Have anyone else felt this kind of “wave” whilst practicing yoga? We will see what will happen in the next coming months but I feel I’ve just tapped into a whole new world of discovery. Inside and outside of the body and mind.
