My Yoga Motivation: A Towel, Soaked in Lavender Water
Everyone brings a different type of yoga motivation to the mat. Yours may be to improve yourself physically, mentally, spiritually, or all of the above. Mine may be to escape, however temporarily, my mole-like existence as a middle-aged work-from-home guy.
But once I’m actually at the studio waiting for yoga class to begin, there’s one thing that drives me to finish strong in every vinyasa level 1 class I take. It’s knowing that at the end of the hour, once I’ve pushed my stiff, stubborn body to its limits…my teacher will say the words I long to hear:
“I’ll be coming around to place a cool, lavender towel on your forehead.”
At that point, I’m able to truly relax into savasana, knowing I MADE IT.
(The instructor usually follows up by saying, “If you don’t want the towel, raise your hand and I’ll respect your space.” I’m too exhausted at that point to say what I’m thinking: “What?! Who wouldn’t want the towel? I’ll take that person’s towel and as many others as you want to give me!”)
Don’t get me wrong. I love the exhilaration that comes from doing yoga…even as I stumble through the flows and poses. I’m pushing myself physically, mentally, and spiritually into places I haven’t gone in my forty-(mumble) years of life. I’m able to set aside my worries and summon back much of the energy that a day in our modern world siphons away. I can return to my wife, my children, my friends and online co-workers as, yes, a better person: more patient, more tolerant, more aware.
That’s all well and good. But as I’m getting into my fifteenth or so downward dog of the class, and the sweat’s dripping from my face, and my arms are shaking, I tell myself what I need to hear keep going and get the most from my yoga practice…
“You’re probably five to ten minutes away from the lavender towel. You. Got. This!”
Yogis, what’s your yoga motivation? Share in the comments!
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7 Comments
Katie
October 25, 2016 at 11:46 amOh man, that sounds amazing! My studio doesn’t do that!
Cele
October 25, 2016 at 8:53 pmYou’re an excellent writer and you should be blogging cause you’re interesting as well. I’m in the practice of wishing I’d do some yoga.
Melanie Gibson
October 26, 2016 at 3:58 pmI do yoga in my apartment where there is no one to bring me one of those lavender-soaked towels afterwards. I suppose some of my motivation is to stretch back out all the muscles that I have tightened up while I’ve been working out running or lifting weights and that has become more and more important as I’ve gotten older, but it has increasingly become an adventure to find out what my body can and can’t do. Now I will have to pretend that there is a towel to help me relax.
Hilary Wiltshire
October 26, 2016 at 5:28 pmFor one of the classes I attend regularly my teacher runs essential oils on my feet and swingns/adjusts my legs. It’s heavenly <3
Rebecca Wells
October 30, 2016 at 10:14 pmLavender soaked towels are the best!!!!!!! I should start making some at home for myself since that’s where I do most of my practice. Personally, during that last 10, 15, 20 or so minutes that start feeling a bit harder than the first part of the class, I do think about Savasana to get me through to the end!
Studio Love: Why I Heart "My" Yoga Studio - Bad Yogi Blog
January 12, 2017 at 7:01 am[…] already written about how Mantra provides towels soaked in lavender water. But there’s more: the staff takes the time to learn people’s names … the teachers “mix it […]
Robert Pattinson
April 5, 2017 at 5:09 amVery informative blog shared. I really enjoyed reading it.