I was able to convince my oldest son Ryan to come to a yoga class that I taught earlier this week. Ryan is 11. I have to admit, I was surprised he came. I think it helped that I told him that one of his football friends, Jack, would be coming to my studio for class sometime. I started to feel the weight of his decision to come as we were driving there. What if he doesn’t like it? What if he refuses to never practice again? Am I asking a young boy to do something that he can’t handle? He had a wonderful practice. I do have to admit that I couldn’t keep myself from laughing a few times when I just took in his boyish awkwardness, that was really beautiful in it’s own way. He came to his mat and really tried his best. During the back bending, I had him use the support of my ankles so that he could get up into wheel. It was powerful and pure. His 11 year old humor also came out during class when he started interchanging the words of “happy baby” and “dead bug” with “happy bug” and “dead baby”- the other yogis in class got a chuckle at this.

In our car ride home, I asked him what he thought. His response was pretty much like, that was really hard and you had me hold the poses too long. He certainly wasn’t asking me to come back next week. I felt peaceful after this. I don’t need Ryan to love what I love. I’m almost happy for the lesson that he didn’t fully embrace it! I share my yoga at Seacoast Power Yoga, when I’m driving in the car, when I’m making dinner, and countless other times throughout my day. Sometimes I share it more freely than other times ☺. I’m so grateful that I can offer Ryan an opportunity to know yoga at such a young age- both on and off his mat.