The Glorious Silence of Yoga

Tonight I drove down to Northampton and joined dozens of others in a high-ceilinged room where we did yoga. Telling people you are going to yoga class is funny, there’s always a reaction, either what for? or how great!

This was more than an exercise class, it was meditation, and quiet, and chanting ohmmmmmmmm and quiet. The instructor gently pulls the students into position, and toward the end, after many luxurious minutes of silence, she softly rang Tibetan bells. As we all sat with our feet propped up against a wall, and settled into the delicious stillness, I wondered what everyone else was thinking about, in that period of extended silence. The point is to not think at all, but of course, my mind raced between cafe details, old meetings of a 1997 Men’s group, and plans to go to Italy.

I thought thought and thought and then we did headstands up against the wall. I look forward to our next class, where I promise not to think so much during the peaceful silence.