Yoga: A Beginners Experience

Mar 25, 2011 by Fabien D.

 

            I got the opportunity to try something absolutely new at The Wanderlust Festival this past Saturday. The experience, to my surprise, was very different than I expected. I didn’t think my first time doing yoga to be so inspirational, while remaining relaxing and rejuvenating. Though my feelings and encounters were very hard to put in to words, I will try to express my experience and feedback during my time participating in the practice of yoga.

            The Wanderlust Festival, to give a little background, is an annual yoga and music infused celebration that takes place in 3 locations in the U.S. (Miami Beach, Florida, Lake Tahoe, California, and Bondville, Vermont). This year was my first year at the festival, and I truly enjoyed myself from beginning to end. The people were friendly, the atmosphere at The Standard Spa in Miami Beach is absolutely impeccable, and the yoga was soothing to the mind and body.

            I began  my first yoga session by sitting on our yoga mats as our instructor, Keith Fox of YogaFox Studio, explained the style of yoga we were all about to take part in. The yoga style was called Yoga Nidra, which is a still-bodied form of yoga that is more internally focused. He also began to explain life, goals and barriers in a way that I never looked at any of them like before.

It felt fully in control of my destiny, with the ability to alter or remove anything that stood between me and where I wanted to be. After this pre-yoga motivational dialogue, we laid on our mats as he began to vocally caress us into a light layer of sleep/hypnosis. My body became more and more relaxed and his voice seemed to fade in and out. Keith began to play an ancient Indian organ-like instrument, which made a beautiful and relaxing melody. My physical awareness became increasingly higher, as if I had unlocked all-access pass to my mind and soul. The instructor took us on an internal spiritual battle between our goals, and our mental barriers keeping us from getting to those goals. Because I was in a state of sleep while being 100% aware and partially awake, it can best be described as an out of body experience. This dream-like state lasted for 20-30 minutes, but I “awoke” rejuvenated with hours of energy. 

Upon waking up from this deeper state of consciousness, I felt very revived and looked at life through different eyes. Everything felt happier and a lot of unknown and built up stress was finally released.  Contrary to my thoughts prior to taking part in this yoga practice, it seemed to have actually worked.

After this, I plan to learn more about yoga and maybe even practice it more often. At the end of the day, our goal in this world is happiness. Anything that can help us on this path to complete happiness is extremely beneficial, and I would suggest the practice of yoga to assist those who are open-minded and ready for mental and physical self-revelations.

-Fabien