What's Your Intention?

What's your intention? That was the question my Core Power Yoga instructor Heather started class with yesterday.  My initial intention was to just to try to keep up with the flowing moves (I'm still a yoga newbie), sweat, focus on my breathing, and stretch.

It is funny to me how my mind wanders in a yoga class as I think about a sentence or a few words an instructor says in the beginning.  Maybe I do it so I don't focus on the heat or the fact that so many others in the class are so much better at yoga than me.

This class was packed.  There were literally a couple of inches between each mat.  Deep in thought over the word intention, flowing from one posture to the next in the heated, crowded room, somewhere out of no where the old-fashioned stereotypical small town idea of the father standing at the door with a shotgun with his daughter's suitor trembling on the door steps as the father ask, "What are your intentions with my daughter?" popped into to my head like it was a scene in a movie.....then SMACK!

The girl next to me had just kicked the guy behind her in the head as she was going up in a handstand. Rule #1 I thought, don't try a handstand in a crowded yoga class, especially when you are in the middle row.  His head snapped back.  He sat back without saying a word but just put his arm out for her to stay away as she turn around and moved toward him to make sure he was ok.  From his reaction I'm going to guess it really hurt and he might of had some sort of neck issue.  She sat shaken on her mat for a few minutes and slowly rejoined the posture series.

Just like the smack to the head, I suddenly realized that the intention of this class just turned in to me analyzing and pondering my dating life. Well that hit me like a ton of bricks.  Really? Yoga correlates to dating?  Ah heck, I really just have to go with this right?  Just go with the flow I thought, since I'm in a hot yoga class....although I did wonder for a sec if the heat was getting to me.

Okay here's the deal, I apparently stink at dating.  I'm blessed to have a ton of friends, but Mr. Right? Well he's certainly hasn't made his presence known....yet (at least I hope there's a yet in there).  As far as intention, working in television, I do wonder at least for a split second when a guy ask me out if he's asking me out because I'm a chick on tv or because he's asking me out for me.  I've gone out with both and the first type I realize in a hurry.  Those are road blocks, but you have to run in to those to appreciate the joy of spending time with those who want to spend time with you, because of you.  It's just like in yoga, you have to put in the effort of trying a pose, fail, or not quite be able to do it, to relish in the joy when you can.  Wow, I am correlating yoga to dating I thought.  My closest friends say I'm perceived as a strong woman.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but apparently it's not such a great thing when dating.  Struggling through postures and poses in yoga while watching others bend and twist in ways I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do, I know I have many weaknesses and weak moments, but I'm willing to at least try and search for a strength inside of me to get through.  In a roundabout way I figured out my intention in that class:  weaknesses and struggles can lead you to a new joy.  Mr. Right?  He'll come along but it's probably going to take me getting smacked in the head to realize it.  It's ok to laugh, because I am.

I did smile when Heather said near the end of class to think about the intention you started the class with....and then how the intention changed over the 60 minutes of class.  Wonder what my intention is going to be for my next yoga class.