Before even starting my project, I went to some yoga classes and really enjoyed them. I felt extremely peaceful and rejuvenated after leaving the classes, so I wanted to incorporate it into my project somehow. I’ve been trying out yoga at Lighthouse Yoga Studio sporadically since my interview with yoga teacher, Thomas Zwergal. I’ve gone to two different classes, both taught by Thomas. The first class I went to was a Gentle Basics class which was very simple, relaxing, and easy to follow along with. The other class I’ve been to a few more times is the Level 1-2 class. This involves some more difficult poses, longer duration, and moves faster.
Today I was having a pretty tough day, to be honest. I’ve got a lot of things going on in my life and they all seemed to just add up and overwhelm me today. I got anxious and felt pretty close to having a panic attack. The stress of school, graduation, prom, and friends all just got to me today, and I then thought to myself, ‘Lily, you have control right now. You can choose to be happy.’
In that moment I decided to go to Thomas’s 6:30 pm Level 1-2 yoga class. I knew that I needed to do something to take my mind off of everything going on in my life and just really take a second to breathe and relax. Yoga felt like the perfect way for me to do that.
There’s something incredibly soothing about the yoga studio the second you walk in. The lights are dim, incense is burning, and light music is playing in the background. I saw my friend’s mom and brother when I first got there, so I was automatically greeted with some familiar faces. Then it was time to get our mats set up for the 90 minute class. I got my area prepared and then sat on my mat and began getting into the mindset of yoga. The next 90 minutes were filled with deep breathing, difficult pose sequences, and conscious thought about my movements, body, and breath. Yoga isn’t super easy for me, physically, and the breathing aspect is hard to for me to adjust to and follow along with. But, I do think that I experienced ‘flow’ while doing yoga. The class felt like 15 minutes, not 90. During yoga my brain is just in this completely different state, it’s not working as hard, my breathing is more fluid, and I am more conscious of my body and how I feel. It was a really amazing session.
I left the studio feeling light, invigorated, calm, and at peace. It was such a contrast of how I was feeling walking into the studio. I think that speaks for itself. Being present was huge for me, I didn’t let myself think about everything else going on in my life outside of the yoga studio, I detached myself for that a truly lived in that moment. I felt happy.
Here are some pictures of the yoga studio during before daytime and evening classes:
