The Yoga Community is Like a Family

I have met some wonderful people and found great resources over the last 30 days; that is about when I started my twitter account and decided to start this blog, Bike Run Yoga. Bike Run Yoga gave me the perfect reason to seek out other yogi's online and connect with people from all over the world. One of the great resources I found was NamasteBookClub on twitter. This group is a combination of yogi's with varying types of practice, skill and expertise and they come together once a week to chat online about a book or a specific topic.

Today was my first day to join the online chat. I hadn't read the book but that didn't matter, many people in the chat either hadn't been able to read the sections previously given or haven't been able to locate the book. That was fine, it was a very free flowing conversation that went from targeted conversation to more abstract thoughts. One person made a comment from the book about the idea of you are already what you are suppose to be and your practice is about opening your mind to see the real you.This got the chat going.

As I mentioned in the chat, I liked this idea. Practicing yoga tends to make me more patient and compassionate. Based on thought process in the book, Yoga in America, I am ALREADY patient and compassionate, I just need to remove the obstacles in my mind. This is great news since I was told not too long ago that I was not compassionate and I have always been told I wasn't very patient. I am particularly pleased to know I am already these things and practicing yoga will help bring these things to more clarity. Wonderful! I love practicing yoga!

Most people in the chat agreed in some form or fashion with the concept from the book. Many gave accounts of there own and that was extremely interesting to read about. I liked the ability to "listen" and respond and not feel silly saying I really had no idea what they were talking about. I consider myself a very novice yogi and sometimes can feel intimidated around veteran yogi's that have been practicing for years and are fully into the spiritual side of yoga.  Not the case in this chat, everyone was very nice and it felt like a very welcoming environment. I "listened" or read what others were saying for a bit and decided I really needed to read the book, participating in a book chat when you don't know anything about the book is not the best use of ones time. 

During the chat they also made two announcements, the NamasteBookClub blog was moving to NamasteBookClub.wordpress.com to provide better resources and features and there is a new meditation contest for twitter. I had to admit on the chat, I have never meditated and am not even really sure how to do it correctly. Sitting and NOT thinking seems like a very hard task. Even in yoga when I am suppose to be concentrating about the moment and being present in class, focusing just on myself...my to do list for the day is going through my head, or the things I forgot to do at work, or the comments someone made during the day, or a passing thought of an old memory and boom...then I hear the instructor and bring my mind back to class. Rarely though am I 100% in class, something I must work on daily. So meditation where you don't think seems virtually impossible but I'm willing to try.

To be more prepared for next week, I am off to Amazon.com to buy the current book. Tomorrow I will practice meditation in between enjoying Labor Day and Free Yoga Day at Bikram Yoga. Can't wait till next Sunday for the next NamasteBookClub Chat.