Personal Progress

My personal progress in yoga feels slow. The teacher is doing a good job of taking us through what I assume are basic poses. She says we are a very strong class, but I personally don't feel as strong. I receive quite a deal of necessary correction in class which, though helpful makes me feel discouraged that I don't seem to naturally be very good at yoga. I do have to remember that many people have taken classes before and I am only a beginning.
My physical strength has also been tested. I find my arms and back of my thighs are very sore after yoga and the following day. Hold plank or downward facing dog poses become excessively challenging the longer we hold the pose, but I am too stubborn to relax into child's pose. I want to progress, I don't want to give up. It's a problem that I see taking child's pose during a different pose as "giving up". I should probably attempt to be more vulnerable.

The end of the classes have been very satisfying however. I am always grateful when our cool down and resting period comes. More importantly however, I've find that though I struggle to keep up with the poses during "practices" in the class, by the end when we combine them into a full routine, it comes much more naturally, my body moves more smoothly and I feel more confident in myself.

The entire affect overall has been good. I am generally not as tired afterward as I imagined I would be from how the sessions go. It does give me energy, particularly as, now that I am head long into my graphic design classes, I am averaging 4-5hrs of sleep a night :/ Not healthy, but my remedy is to catch up on the weekends and replace sleep with yoga and coffee.

Today I ran into my art professor that I'd had a bit of conflict with the day before. He had over run class time on Tuesday by 20 minutes, saving me for second to last with 15 minutes to go before my next class started. This is a 5hr class, so you can imagine my frustration that he was not able to properly manage his time to give 14 students adequate attention. My critique of my work was terribly, he ripped apart my ideas, concepts, ect. I left mid-crit to reach my other class, extremely frustrated, furious, self-righteous, angry tears pouring down my face. The following day (today) I ran into him coincidentally right after yoga. I was amazed at how calmly I was able to talk to him. He also was much more calm and less belligerent than he'd been the day before. I listened quietly to his suggestions, asked polite ways that I could reach his standards and than departed, feeling like I had new direction, encouraged, and so calm. I can't deny the affect of the previous yoga session on my mood, clarity of mind, patience with him and ability to realize that perhaps my work had not been appropriate to what he had been asking for.

Thank you yoga.