Taking yoga time off is OK

Sometimes, a yogi wakes up, puts her yoga mat by the door, gets dressed, drinks her decaf chai and then realizes she really doesn't feel like going to yoga class. So she stays home that day, maybe goes for a bike ride or a long walk, and the mat stays by the door.

And it stays there for weeks, maybe months, until someone moves it to a less-in-the-way place. She thinks often of going to yoga, but it doesn't hold the same excitement as it did. It no longer feels like: "Yay, I get to go to yoga," but becomes: "Should I go to yoga today?" And the guilt sets in.

Is she no longer a yogi because she hasn't gone to a class in a few months?

My answer: No.

First, yoga is more than just the physical practice of doing postures. Second, yoga lives in your heart forever, whether you want it there or not. It doesn't take up that much space, and it is, after all, very flexible, so it can mold itself around the other many things that live in a person's heart.

I have a friend who agonizes over her lack of motivation to go to yoga classes these days. She wonders if it is OK. She wonders if she still can consider herself a yogi.

To my friend I say: "No need to peel the 'om' bumper stickers off your hybrid car yet. You're doing plenty to still qualify."

Lots of people take time off from yoga. It is very, very normal. Some are forced to because of injuries or surgeries. Some merely lose the feeling for it for a while. This is fine. The great thing is, yoga still will be there for you when you're ready to return to it.

Odds are, when you do choose to return to it, when you wake up one day and really want to go to a yoga class, or you really want to practice on your own, your practice will have changed some. Maybe it is more aggressive and sweatier than it was before. Maybe it is more focused on holding poses for extended periods of time. Maybe you decide you want to learn a whole new type of practice, so you try a few new teachers and styles to see what suits you now.

Sometimes what keeps us from going to classes is boredom. Maybe after a few years of doing the same set of sequences, you just don't feel like it anymore. Yoga should never give you that "ho-hum" feeling. Sometimes we just don't feel like listening to the dogma that may be thrown at us during class anymore. And sometimes we just plain don't feel like going. There is no real reason why you don't want to go — you just don't feel like it.

About the worst thing you can do to a yoga practice is force it. The greatest thing about yoga is that you "get to do some yoga," rather than "having to lift weights," for example.

Yoga is supposed to be your physical Calgon: It takes you away from the stress of the rest of your life. It gives you respite from the things that swim in your head like a great white feeding frenzy. If you are in a yoga class thinking about dinner plans, or whether you left the coffee pot on, or what errands you have yet to run, then you are missing the best part of the practice. Yoga is about being in the moment.

Yoga is supposed to make you feel better. You should feel better and more alive yet more relaxed than when you started. If you've lost that lovin' feeling, then take some time off. Try other things. Swing dancing. Karate. Knitting. Collecting Webkinz.

Yoga will be waiting for you should you decide to come back to it, and it holds no grudges. I promise. Relax.

Suzanne Gannon is a yoga instructor in the Charleston area. Reach her at suzygannonyoga@yahoo.com.