Fluid Yoga
Fluid Power: 8-10 a.m.
The rain drizzled gracefully down the outwardly-slanted window in the Waterfall Room. Outside were people carrying umbrellas and splashing in the puddles of water collecting on the asphault below. It was the perfect setting for Shiva Rea's Fluid Power class.
Shiva reminded the class that our bodies are 98 percent water, and that the belief that our forms are solid became outdated a hundred years ago (and that the yoga community always knew better). She guided the class in simple, rounded arm movements. We synchronized our breath with our movements. All inhibitions were dulled away as the class was given the opportunity to move in any way that felt natural. Sure enough, it felt like I was a body of water surrounded by bodies of water. It was surreal.
Since this was my first encounter with this kind of constant movement in yoga, I have to admit, when we started, I was skeptical. We looked more like the audience at a jam band concert (minus the hula hoops) than a yoga class. My mind slipped away from time to time as I thought about how various people in my life would react if they could only see me. "Wow, I knew you were moving to San Francisco, but I didn't know you were becoming a crazy hippie." I dismissed the voices of invisible naysayers. It didn't matter because it felt so right, so natural. I was finally in the moment. I was having fun.
Shiva and her assistants encouraged us to keep that feeling of fluidity as we moved on into an asana practice. It was part vinyasa part undulation, but it was all fluid. The visual was water throughout. We were imagining our weight was supported by waves or that our bodies themselves were the waves. That really helped because water can move in so many ways and can be so theraputic.
I think I left the class with a different view of yoga. I realized that yoga doesn't have to look a certain way. In this class I learned to completely pour my body into my practice, allowing my mind to be as calm and serene as the ocean.
Comments
Different people have different percentages of their bodies being water. Babies have the most, being born at about 78%. By one year of age,
that amound drops to about 65%. In adult men, about 60% of their bodies
are water. However, fat tissue does not have as much water as lean tissue.
In adult women, fat makes up more of the body than men, so about
55% of their bodies is water. Fat men also have less water (as a
percentage) than thin men.
So you can see three possible reasons for discrepancies:
1) Babies and kids have more water (as a percentage) than adults.
2) Women have less water than men (as a percentage).
3) Fat people have less water than thin people (as a percentage).
A fourth reason is that people measure per cent water multiple ways, causing small differences in the answer.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 18, 2006 03:11 PM