I did not meet my goal of being able to completely relax during meditation. I did not realize how much discipline it takes to do this, therefore I need more practice! I DID meet my goal of maintaining my flexibility. I can tell that I am not losing my flexibility like I usually do during summer. I learned that I love being a hands on learner more than I thought.  This course takes a lot of hands on in order to learn different types of yoga. I will definitely use hatha yoga in the further to help me with my dancing and cheerleading. Especially the balance poses! I will also keep trying the relaxation meditation and practice to the point when I can become completely relaxed and disconnected from distractions and things that don’t matter. I enjoyed this May Term a lot. It wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be, but that’s because I didn’t know what yoga really meant! I loved learning what yoga is all about and thank you for being such a good instructor!

I enjoyed trying the different types of meditation today. Being in stations helped me focus a little more because I wasn’t just sitting in the same place. I will probably use the relaxation technique from here out when I want to mediate because I feel like that one I can relax and stop thinking about other things going on in the world. I did not care for the mantra outside. It got embarrassing because people would walk by. If I were to perform that again I would find somewhere that I knew people wouldn’t be listening or watching so I could fully concentrate. Overall I enjoyed attempting all of these different types of meditation!

I really enjoyed hearing what everyone in the class did to improve their karma. My favorite was the girl that went to a restaurant and a man actually had talked about believing in good karma and bad karma to the waitress and paid for the girl’s meal! This shows that karma is an existing thing all around the world. I am glad we got to do some hatha yoga even though we have moved away from that a little. I am hoping on the last day we can do a little bit of everything from the very first thing we learned to the very last as an overview!

 Today I completed an act of karma by picking up trash around my hometown. I walked a few blocks to the park and to the church. This act of kindness helps the environment stay clean which makes people happy! I am glad I got the chance to improve my karma and the environment all in one!

Today was the best yoga experience of my life! I enjoyed hot yoga so much! It was a totally different atmosphere than usual with different poses and stretches. I loved the end when the instructor put oil on our neck and shoulders! Before the class started I didn’t think I was going to make it through because saunas are too hot for me, but I really let myself go and enjoyed the experience! I will definitely be back again! Thank you so much for letting us have this opportunity.

I loved being in the wrestling room today for the more advanced yoga poses! I like trying the more advanced poses since I am skilled in these from dance and tumbling. These poses required a lot of balance. I feel like if we keep practicing the harder poses that I will reach my goal of improving my balance! Today we also showed the class our shrines. I really loved seeing all of the different creative ideas that each group had! I did feel kind of weird “worshiping” hindu gods, but I think it is important to know about more than just your own religion to see what the world is made of.

Today we did a little bit of hatha yoga at the beginning of class. We were given our gift cards and were set out to buy our supplies for our shrine. We figured out that with just $15 we were going to have to be creative on how we build our shrine. Our shrine is for Lakshima. I can’t wait to show everyone our shrine!

I learned about the different gods and goddesses of the Hindu today. Since my group chose Lakshmi, we will be creating a shrine to represent her. I am excited to learn about different types of yoga this week. I loved making the figures with play-dough! I love that we do balance poses in class because it helps me keep my center when I want to practice my turns in dance. It shows me how much dance has taught me to keep my center.

Today we learned about the different pranayama techniques and how to perform them. My first thought seeing this type of yoga being done was mixed. I didn’t really see the meaning of the breathing different ways. I now see how important breathing techniques are after learning about this! I really like the nostril plug technique we learned. It shows how much we take our breath for granted!

My learning goals for Yoga May Term:

1. Learn how to completely relax and disconnect from the outside world during meditation.

2. Improve my flexibility to help with my dancing.

3. Learn more about myself through different types of yoga and how they help my body.