"A sister is both your mirror - and your opposite." ~ Elizabeth Fishel
I am always telling my sister how she needs to do yoga, well I am always telling everyone that. However with her, I may be a little more pushy! After telling my sister for months to do yoga, she did finally listen. She found this class she really liked – yin yoga. I was always aware of what yin yoga is – very restorative – holding poses for 3 to 5 minutes. However, I have always preferred the flow and movement in a vinyasa class. Taking it at face value, holding poses for long periods of time did not strike me as something I would enjoy. I was just happy she was practicing yoga. After all, the poses are just something we do to get to the heart of who we are – the yogic state is already within us. So it didn’t matter to me that she wasn’t doing chaturangas. The fact that she was feeling the benefits was all that mattered!
I did become a little more interested, call it curious. Because she enjoyed it, it made me want to know more about it. I intended to try a yin class for awhile, but they always seemed to be offered on a Sunday evening. For me, that’s a time of winding down at home and preparing for work on Monday (and if it is football season - fahget about it!) However a few weekends ago, the stars aligned, and I found myself in my first yin class on a Sunday evening. I fell in love! It was like a hot bubble bath with lavender aromatherapy after a massage! Just the restoration my body needed. In my opinion, the perfect complement to a very yang vinyasa practice. I now see myself making yin yoga a part of my practice.
My sister and I couldn’t be any more opposite – I’m a vegetarian, she loves red meat. I like neutral colors and with her it is the brighter the better. I prefer flats and she loves heels. I could go on and on…
Actually, I think Taoist philosophy describes us much better – there are no opposites, but complements. You can’t know one without knowing the other. She is the yin to my yang. After all the pushing I have done to get her to do yoga, here I am thanking her for getting me to do yoga! She finally gets her yogic props!
