This is Coach Jane. As you can see, she is insanely flexible. Up until about a month ago, she taught yoga at the Pro Health by my house. I started taking her class twice a week in November. I absolutely love her class. She has made a noticeable impact on my life in the past 6 months that I've been attending. I can easily see the positive influence her class has had on my yoga, my physical fitness, and my life in general. Coming from a basketball background, the person who is directing your exercise and pushing you towards your goals is "coach." So naturally, Jane has become Coach Jane. I call her that when I refer to her in conversation with my friends and family. She doesn't know that I call her Coach Jane. I guess she'll find out if she reads this. :-)
It is weird how people can impact you. Sometimes, they don't even know who you are. Even if they do they might not know they've had an impact at all. Coach Jane's influence has been like this to me. We speak in class now and then, but we don't know each other very well. I don't know much about her outside of class. I don't know anything about her history or how she would react in common life situations. The same is true in the reverse. She knows some things about me, but not much. Regardless, she has left a lasting impression.
I came to Jane's class in late November. I decided to start my new year's resolutions early so I wouldn't be one of the people coming to the gym for the first time on January 1. In the past I'd been in and out of yoga classes and I wanted to get back into it. Her class was held at a convenient time so I started attending. I was immediately hooked. Her class is unique in that it brings peace to your mind like you would expect from yoga, but it really challenges your body. When most people think of yoga they think of the peace but not the challenge. The challenge is what keeps my body and mind interested and coming back for more.
Coach Jane has taught me a lot in class. Some of it has been directly relevant to my triathlon training and a lot of it has been relevant to life.
Listen to your body. This is kind of a yoga creed. If your body is saying ouch, don't push it. This lesson pushed me toward getting my bike fitting to relieve my knee pain. It also influenced me to make a really tough decision, to stop taking spin class. I love spin class, but it was causing knee pain that I couldn't fix. This lesson doesn't mean you stop pushing your body at any resistance. Your body is capable of much more than you give it credit for. You can push it pretty hard and in exercise that is a good thing. Pushing when your body is sending a signal to stop because of pain is a different story though. Before yoga I wasn't able to differentiate between the two. Now I recognize when my body needs a day to recover or just should not be pushed in a certain way.
Choose a positive attitude. One of my favorite things about Coach Jane's class is the positive attitude she brings to class. She's never walked in the door without a smile on her face. Now I can't believe that in 6 months she's never had a bad day. While she always seems to have a positive attitude, she doesn't give off an everything's perfect vibe. She realizes that some of us come out of really stressful days, but like in yoga you have to be able to adapt and work with what you've been given. This has been a tough lesson that I still haven't fully figured out. God placed Jane's class in my life at exactly the right time. When I first came to class my family had just found out that my mom's cancer had returned after a 2 year disappearing act. I didn't feel like I was succeeding at work and other relationships around me seemed to be falling to pieces. I realize that there are a lot of people with much harder lives than mine, but let's just say positivity wasn't really in the forefront of my mind. Jane's attitude has slowly helped me work though the negative thoughts and feelings and realize that you can still find pleasure in the little good things in life when things seem to be falling apart.
Everyone is welcome. Jane's class is very popular. Sometimes the class is seemingly full. However, when the next person walks in the door she happily instructs us to move our mats closer together to make room. She has said that the most fun classes are always packed full. Some days our mats were only 6 inches apart. But she was right, they were a lot of fun. Even if you do accidentally kick someone on the head! This is a good life lesson. No one is more important or less important than anyone else. Yoga has been a very individual activity for me in the past, but this class has helped me realize that it's not just about me. It's about the class as a whole and the environment that is created when we all get together.
Yoga can be about strength. Most people think of yoga as stretching, but it can also improve your strength. I have always been pretty puny when it comes to strength. By regularly attending yoga I've gotten to the point that I can do two full "man" push ups. To a lot of people that may not sound like much, but I have never been able to do even a single full push up. It is so rewarding to see progress.
Regularly attending yoga has done so much to improve my physical and mental well being since I started attending in November. When Jane announced she was leaving the Pro Health I was really bummed about it. Sometimes, people are only put in your life for a short season and I was pretty sure this season was ending. Fortunately, Jane has started a new class in Melbourne Beach that is actually more convenient for me to attend than her previous class. For now, this season will continue and I am incredibly grateful for each class.
***Note: if you are interested in attending Jane's class send me a note and I'll get you her information. It is a great class!
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