Crossroads Yoga

Crossroads is big on yoga! There are three class periods offered each day for students to meditate, stretch, relax, and push themselves to reach new goals. It is deeper than reaching for your toes, although we definitely have our fingers wrapped around them. It is a safe place to connect with ourselves and with other students. When we enter the yoga room, we are told to leave our stresses behind us. For the next forty-five minutes, drama, social media, and negativity are left outside the door. It is only us in the room; connected, lifted, and free. Then there are the poses we try. Some are easy, while others are more challenging. We are told it is OK to wobble, it is OK to lose our balance; we have to fall a few times to finally master it.

We start our yoga practice sharing positives we have experienced that day or the day before. Then we sit in easy pose and breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. In unison. Together. We then move onto basic poses, warming our bodies up and slowly easing into stretches. As we progress through the class, the poses get a little more challenging. Lifting from the ground and balancing on a single foot or just our toes. The teacher asks us to focus on points in the room, breathe deeply and plant our feet. Finding our balance through a mixture of steady breathing and concentration. Believing in ourselves and accepting mistakes. As we wobble, she commends us for trying, and we get back up. It is through this practice that we are able to experience and conquer our goals. Something we can apply in our lives outside the yoga room. We can conquer our classes, and we can be successful. We have all noticed growth as we become more flexible and balanced. Some of us are mastering poses for the very first time. Doing headstands and lifting ourselves into crow pose. Something we weren't sure we could do before.

-Namaste