How do you lift the crown of your head?

Today's class - Chair Yoga. My abs are sore from yesterdays crunches on a ball, but I figured how tough could chair yoga be. Well it's not very difficult for sure, but it really was very interesting.

There were 6 other people, all at least 20-30 years older to me. One man even had an oxygen tank with him! We had to grab a chair, a yoga mat, a strap, and a styrofoam like brick. Another day, another lot of accessories I've never used! The instructor was probably in her late 50's or 60's. She had a very mellow voice, but look to be quite cranky.

We were told to close our eyes and "let go"of our tensions and just think about breathing. I tried, but was distracting by the Japanese music in the background. I couldn't stop imagining Ralph Machio in Karate Kid II, romancing that Japanese girl. We then did some stretches to "open space in our body". Honestly, I'm trying to close space in my body, thank you very much! Lots of talk about connecting and how everything is about open spaces or something like that.

I really was confused about some of the instructions. How is one supposed to "Lift the crown of your head" and "push your tailbone down towards the floor" (while standing straight up). I tried looking at everyone else, but they were doing exactly what I was doing - which was really nothing.

I nearly cracked up at one point when the instructor said to let go of all the tension in our faces. This woman looked like granny cranky pants, so I had to stifle a chuckle when she said this. I could not contain a smile - I hope she wasn't looking.

The class went by fairly quickly, surprisingly. At the end she spoke some mumble jumble about letting "Mother Earth" support our feet. Well I certainly hope "she" does, lest we be living on the moon! I wonder if Christianity seems as strange to people who believe in New Age as vice versa. It's just weird to me. Then she ended the class with the words "Shanti Shanti", which I had to look up - meaning "peace, peace" in sanskrit or something like that. I couldn't help remember the movie Music & Lyrics with Hugh Grant where the music star kept saying that. I smiled again.

So to sum up - A cranky looking, soft spoken yoga instructor taught a group of 7, mostly seniors, how to stretch sitting in a chair, listening to Japanese music and ended speaking in ancient Sanskrit. It was interesting. I probably won't go back.