My First Yoga Class – Ripple Yoga

Whether you think you’re inflexible, have a racing mind or have never tried it, know that Yoga is for everyone! At Ripple Yoga we teach to the wholly integrated experience that goes beyond just the physical practice. Yoga means union and a return to oneness with our true self. The teachings and practices create the framework to allow us to experience this. Sarvesh explains it here, in the video titled
Yes, You Can Do Yoga!

Sarvesh gives us an honest account of what his first yoga class was like

The sweat and indignity were pooled around the yoga mat mocking me. It was 105 degrees in the room and the humidity was so high that I was sure that no modern testing equipment could measure its potency. We were 20 minutes into a one-hour hot yoga class and I was fairly certain that death was a few lung-burning gasps away. The teacher was happily barking out orders and the 20 women in the class were moving in a fluid orchestration, slinging weights around effortlessly to the rhythm of her voice. This yoga class had weights! I knew nothing about yoga but what little I knew did not include weights. nor did it include 105 degrees.

The class mercifully ended about 40 minutes after I had collapsed to the mat. There were doubts as to whether yoga, at least this definition of yoga in a steaming hot room slinging weights around in yoga poses, was for me. The teacher, who was a perky, hyper-flexible blonde in her twenties, came up to me after the class: “How was class for you?” It was an interesting question considering she saw me lying there on the floor for the last 40 minutes. So I told her: “This was yoga? Why weights? I was expecting something different.”

She laughed. “This probably wasn’t a good first class for you. The sculpt classes are good once you’ve gotten used to the practice and the heat. I would recommend coming back for a Hatha class.”

I came back for Hatha, and hated it just a little less than the class with weights. But at this point in my journey I had started to believe in something bigger than myself. And that something was telling me to stick with this, even though it amplified every physical and emotional pain and discomfort sensory apparatus in my being. This something inside told me that this was the good kind of discomfort that led to growth, and I had now begun to listen to that voice inside. It had helped save my life, and that belief was beginning to turn into an unshakable faith. The Yogi in me was born.

This story is an excerpt from chapter 19 of Sarvesh’s book 20,000 Oms and a Cup of Chai

What's Your Story?

Do you remember your first Yoga experience? What did you perceive Yoga to be at that time?

If you are just starting out now, what do you hope to receive from the exploration and study of Yoga?