My friend sent me this blog posting by her UCLA writing teacher called Who Moved My Yoga Mat. Someone moved her mat while she was in the bathroom before class and it was a huge annoyance. Can’t we all relate huh? It’s like dammit I’ve come here to GET RELAXED and instead this thing happens to get in my way.

And those experiences can be really intense ‘letting go’ opportunities because you will so not relax if you spend the whole freakin’ class thinking about how annoyed you are. I’m convinced the Universe has a sense of humour, it’s like “oh so you’re gonna relax now huh? what about if I do this? [poke] How about this? Relaxed yet? [poke poke]. It’s too funny. And having a sense of humour really is the best response.

When I was doing yoga teacher training, I was pregnant, and one early a.m. before our 90 minute yoga class a fellow trainee came in and she was really excited to hear I was expecting. She’d had two kids and she promptly sat down to talk to me and moved right into telling me about her birth experiences. And it was like I had “spare no gory detail” written on my forehead. I was horrified. She shared really gruesome stuff. I felt dumped on. I would have much rather been gently stretching and buying my ticket on the Bliss train.

I spent the yoga class trying to let go of this experience. I was angry. All my fears about childbirth reared their ugly heads. But I just kept trying to keep focus on my breath and my body. Somehow by the end of the class I felt a little steadier. I even felt a little compassionate towards her because I know she *was* happy for me.

When the class ended she came over to me and apologized. She realized she’d committed an “over-share” of waaay too much information. I started crying my eyes out because all the emotions that had been churned up combined with my hormones were pretty lethal. But it was a really good cleansing cry. We’d already connected so we were able to get closure together. It ended up being the best thing for me.

What do you need to let go of before your next yoga session starts?