I hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve.  I had a different kind of New Year’s celebration this year.  Instead of spending hundreds of dollars going out to a bar for a booze and stranger filled celebration, some friends and I decided to ring in the New Year in a more peaceful way. With yoga.

In case you haven’t gotten the idea, I’m a bit spastic and not at all zen.  Yoga is not my thing.  I much prefer adrenaline fueled activities with a high risk of injury.  Twisting myself into a pretzel on New Year’s Eve wasn’t what I thought I’d be doing, however this is the same friend who I went to outdoor yoga with in the fall and since I always have fun with her, I decided to give it a go.

We went to South Boston Yoga, a studio far enough from my apartment so that I wouldn’t completely embarrass myself if I saw anyone I knew.  We got a bit of a late start since parking proved to be more of an issue than anticipated.  I joked to my friend that she might not live to see the New Year if we ended up in the front row.  She assured me that the space was big enough for us to sneak in the back…but it wasn’t.  Roughly 137 of the 140 people signed up were already there when we arrived, leaving 3 tiny spots for us– front and center–sandwiched between the instructor’s mini piano thing that he played songs on at the end of the session (no joke) and a handful of instructors from the studio.  We were total fish out of water and I was petrified.

Surprisingly, it was an great evening.  I figured it would be fun to try something different but this was more than just that.  It could have been the dehydration (did I mention it was HOT yoga for one of the two hours?) or maybe just the awesome instructor, but I loved it.  The instructor was funny and helpful and only called us out once on slacking.

I even surprised myself when I started chanting at the end.  Who knew that month of Kundalini yoga that my sister-in-law and I laughed through back in high school would stick with me a dozen years later??  It’s strange to say, but I might have been convinced to try it again.  It’s definitely a New Year!