Originally Posted by
honeypig 
This made me remember a couple of things: When I first started doing yoga, probably 15 years ago, I often ended a session feeling as if I might cry. Recently, if I have a decent run, I will feel exhilarated immediately after but then hard on the heels of that I will start to cry. I recently had a massage w/my massage therapist, who I feel is especially gifted, and I sat in the car after that and cried also. Really didn't make the connection all the way until this moment, but yes, relaxing your body and allowing yourself to be still and feel instead of creating noise all the time....and then what comes up may be tough to deal with.
Thanks for this topic; I see there is more to think about than I originally imagined. Appreciate everyone's posts here.
Yeah, I've had that happen quite frequently too. Thank goodness when I did yoga, I was the teacher and constantly distracted by people's bad posture and trying to talk them into a better position so they wouldn't pull a hamstring or something. I swear I spent my entire class time going around and visually modifying everyone's pose structure. I taught at a few gyms, not yoga studios so most people weren't comfortable being touched to be put into the correct position. I'd have people doing down dog with arched backs, bent elbows, heads lifted and looking ahead, etc where it looked like they were getting ready for a race, not resting in a very empowering yoga pose, LOL! I'd walk around the room or call out modifications from the front of the class, "Drop the crown of your head, relax the neck, if your wrists hurt then remember to push the floor away using your whole hand and fingers, breathe, breathe, OK, please don't hold your breath people, I see red faces out there make sure you're breathing......UUGGGHHHH!!!" Yes, yoga is relaxing for some but as an instructor it was quite stressful to get a class of 30 people to follow along, LOL.
I wish I liked running, but I can barely jog a few blocks right now before my calves start to feel like they're seizing up. Then I tell myself that it's time to get back to the yoga studio, haha! I was out playing tennis with friends a few mornings ago and it got to 101 degrees that day and I thought, "what the hell am I doing out here when I could be in the gym taking pilates or yoga or something?" Tennis is where my competitive side gets to flash it's hidden existence and I sometimes think I need me some of that too!
Oh, and all your relaxing music? I have a lot of that because I used it when I taught. Heck, I live near the relaxation capital of our country: Sedona, AZ. You can't walk into a shop there without hearing some sort of relaxation music.
I love just going to Sedona for the day and taking it all in, it's our favorite day trip especially when I want to get a good red rocks hike in.
If you like guitar music that brings about relaxation, try looking up Jesse Cook. He's fantastic, I love his music. I do have to look into some real books on meditation, though. Maybe if I treat it as a skill and not some foreign language that I have no capacity for learning, I'll master something new in my life? Although, I do speak decent Italian thanks to the best Italian teacher in high school so I guess that means I can be capable of being taught something new, LOL!