Attempts at New Experiences

As most of you know, I have been going to Los Angeles once a week since I moved to Las Vegas to attend a class at The Red Engine School.  The first couple of times I went to L.A., I drove there in the morning and drove back to Las Vegas that same night, getting home at about 3 a.m. 

My cousin Sue lives in L.A. and we got in touch and we figured it might be better if I spent the night at her place and drive the next day.  What you might not know is that Sue teaches yoga and not just the standard practice on a mat.  She teaches H2yOga!  If you don't know what that is, head over here:
H2yOga

It didn't take much convincing for me to want to take the class since I've been wanting to do yoga for a long time now.  Sue kindly invited me/welcomed me into the classes she had on Friday morning.  Last week was my first classes - yup, not just one, but two classes.  The first was Flows Afloat, which has a focus on connecting breath to movement.  The second class, Detox Aloft, is a bit more rigorous and intensive.  The classes started at 6 a.m. so we had to get up pretty early to get to the facility and that was a little hard on us since we had been up a little late the evening before talking and catching up.  Still, I was very glad I took the classes.  First, it was something good and healthy for me to do and usually you feel good when you do something good for yourself.  Second, I went in with no idea what to expect, so I had no expectations - I could just go in and... experience it.  Which I did.  I was easy on myself for not getting things right away or doing things right.  And while I felt the results of the workout, it wasn't harsh.  We did the class in a heated salt water pool so there was little strain and I can say that the next day, I didn't feel really sore - just a light ache that wasn't a big deal.

If you aren't sure about whether these classes are good and thinking I might be biased, read some reviews on Yelp!

This past week, Sue had added another class to the Friday morning lineup... the new class starting at 5 a.m.  My friends will know that I am not an early riser, nor really a morning person, but I did it!  This added class is a Pre/Post-Natal class - Now wait... before you say anything, you should know that out of the four of us there, only one was actually pregnant.  The class was much easier, working on balance and breathing and retaining a limber aspect to your body.  Its a really great way to start the day...  Of course this moved into the Flows Afloat class and then the Detox Aloft.

It was actually harder this time around - and it wasn't because the classes were harder, but because I was harder on myself.  Granted, I was tired physically - I was doing three classes of physical activity that I hadn't done before and no, I didn't feel it so much consciously (I guess because I was floating in the water) but my body was getting tired even if I wasn't aware of it.  For some reason, because I was doing this all a second time, I expected to do all the moves easily or better and that interrupted my actual ability to do the exercises.  I was tense.  By the third class I was having to stop and relax myself and let things go when they were getting either too difficult to do or I missed a movement that was meant to flow into another.  I had to stand in the water, take a few deep breaths and roll the tension out of my shoulders before trying to get back into the class.  I also forgave myself for not being better - mentally talking to myself to remind me that this was still new to me.

Its funny how hard I am on myself when I feel like I should know what I'm doing.  Its been the same situation with the classes at Red Engine.  Because I know a certain amount of information, I feel like I should be automatically better at what I'm doing.  Granted, my drawings are good and my character stuff is pretty good, but I'm still struggling with other things. 

Re-enactment of actual events

I'm getting frustrated with myself and annoyed, but I'm not being as forgiving as I am in the yoga class.  Perhaps because the yoga is new and doing art isn't, but I realize that I have to remember that this particular form of art is new to me.  It was easy for me to say that I knew I had to readjust some of my thinking when approaching the concept art, but I guess some part of me assumed I would be able to pick it up fast and be able to hit the ground running.  After all, most of my attempts at other forms of art have been fairly successful and not too difficult to pick up.  That just hasn't been the case here.

Just about final version of the character

We reached the 'midterm' this past week and I had a final character and environment.  The character was fine, but the environment image wasn't that successful.  I can honestly say that I was frustrated and annoyed and feeling like I wanted to just give up on the whole thing.  I was hitting that "I AM NEVER GETTING THIS!" moment and feeling that petulant "I don't care!" attitude - I just wanted to walk out. 

But like the yoga, I'm not giving up.  What I have to do, when I hit that wall of frustration, is to stop what I'm doing, get up and take deep breaths, roll my head on my shoulders and release the tension in my neck before jumping back in to try again.  I also have to be more forgiving of myself.  Seems that is always the hardest part.