Yoga With My Omies

Remember the other day when you stayed up way too late happily torturing yourself to stay awake, just to get some time in to watch that new terrible episode of whatever, in those embarrassing pajamas that nobody but your dogs will ever see? Let’s take a moment of silence for that day…/p>
Because remember when that amazing, slightly pathetic but who’s paying attention night was quickly followed with the evil devil morning where you hit snooze 5 times before you flung yourself out of bed because you’re an adult and you have to do adult things now like get up before the sun? That sun’s got it so easy.

You’re stuck in traffic behind the slowest car in the city, there are no parking spaces and you’re late to your morning meeting. You’re stressed, you’re tired, and nobody wants to mess with you until you’re ¾ of the way done with your magical cup of coffee that quickly turns on you after the 4^th cup that you NEED so you don’t fall asleep on your notepad and quickly turn into the walking, pen covered billboard of your to-do’s for the day.

Is this me pretending this is your life and really these are my confessions? Absolutely.

But that all changed when a little piece of heaven stopped by Living Room to teach Hatha Yoga to us cranky, stress-filled, busy-bee workers. On January 29^th, Emily Davies Merk brought the calm and completely transformed our state of mind into total relaxation (to the point of taking short lived naps that we all forgot existed since the days of drinking apple juice out of sippy cups). Starting at 6pm, Living Room opened it’s doors with incense, mango-ginger water, dimmed lights and calming music.

Emily came in with the ambitious goal of making us forget about our troubles, and she totally namaste’d our asses. The class is structured for all ages and levels. If you have always wanted to be part of a yoga class but have been scared about going, this is a perfect beginning.

Emily started with focusing on breath, slowly moved into stretching and then went through a series of poses which were challenging but still achievable for anyone, as Emily was wonderful about providing alterations for beginners and the more advanced. It was totally customizable to wherever you’re at in your practice of yoga. Also, what’s really wonderful about Emily is how comfortable she makes you feel at each level. She reinforced the fact that she is your guide and you can feel free to make each pose your own according to what feels good to you or your level of comfort. If you love a pose, stay there as long as you want and meet the rest of the group later. She made everything very approachable and conquerable; a wonderfully motivating feeling for anyone. Not to mention, she has the voice of an angel! The end of the class took us full circle, back to lying on the ground, focused on breathing. It was incredible. We all felt like we had gotten hour-long massages. Working out = massage? We were shocked too.

Needless to say, we hope to have Emily back for future events, so if you’re looking for a workout after work, a breath of fresh air, or a way to change your mood and unwind, please join us next time.

Emily can be found here: http://gaiarae.wix.com/yoga