Yoga Class

by Sonia Anoop

I enrolled myself for a Yoga class hoping to regale my life with its holistic approach.

It was a group class mainly of people who have corporate desk jobs. We met every Friday at four in the evening.

One particular week, I had a very hectic Friday trying to meet deadlines. The stress had sapped all my energy through the day. However I pushed myself to the class and tried very hard to give in my best to hold the various poses in class.

Our Yoga guru was trying to teach us the Yoga Nidra meditation technique which involves being in a state of conscious deep sleep. We were asked to lie down and listen to a tape in the background and concentrate on each of the mentioned 61 points in our body. Trying to consciously relax each point and get into a posture of relaxed deep awareness.

This meditation technique enables an individual to be in a conscious state while sleeping and nurtures will power. But during the practice, I drifted off to deep sleep while listening to the tape. The cool breeze , the pleasant voice on the tape , the completely relaxed atmosphere seemed to be like a perfect end to my hectic day.

My Yoga guru woke me after an hour and told me that he did not have the heart to wake me earlier.The rest of the class finished their Yoga Nidra in fifteen minutes and were off.

What embarrassed me further was one of my class mates in Yoga class mentioning it the next day. Apparently I was snoring loudly in Yoga Nidra and created quite a racket during the class.

I am so glad that I was not chided by my Yoga master who asked me to concentrate on the practice in the future. This remains my most unforgettable funny story about my meditative endeavours. So far ...