I went to a yoga class for the first time ever last night. My wife, who used to go to yoga, came along as well. I think that this was in part to see if she could find a good class to get into something that she used to enjoy , but in part to make sure that I did nothing overly idiotically enthusiastically.

I had never been to yoga and I must say that I was a bit nervous. I was worried about giggling and worried about being totally inept. The two are more interconnected than one would think. If I cannot do something I stress, when I stress my one fallback involuntary reaction is to giggle. When I start to giggle I stress more which makes me giggle. I was afraid of being stuck on the floor, giggling hysterically, ruining the class for everybody and then skulking away in humiliation. Fortunately, nothing like that happened.

Paula is a very smart and gentle (at least to us beginners) instructor. The first deed was to lay on the mat and breath. Close your eyes and breath. Take in as much air as you can. Try and slow down the breathing rate. Try to take a bit more time to breathe out than you do in. Really concentrate on the breathing and you body. It was easy and hard to do that.

I cannot remember all the gentle movements that we did. I learned how stiff and inflexible my body is at this point. For example - at one point we were flat on our backs on the floor. Our arms were to be flat on the floor just straight out from our shoulders and then we were to bend at 90 degrees at the elbow in a sort of "hands up - you are under arrest position". I could not do that and sill be flat on the ground - I needed a bit support in terms of foam blocks.

A few moves required a bit of pressure on the sternum and I could hear my wife whispering for me to be careful. Which was a good reminder - it is amazing how easily we forget.

I am really rambling - I must say that the night is a bit of a fog even though it took place just 24 hours ago. But I like yoga , I shall return and write more.