Releasing my inner hippie

Organic... free trade... sustainability... yoga... meditation... back to nature...

Those are all words I associate with what I consider the 'New Age Hippie' movement. Not that I agree/disagree with it as a whole. I completely agree with the concepts of free trade and economic/environmental sustainability, though I may not be so good at my follow-through. What I've been somewhat less hesitant to explore/experiment with are the last three.

You see, there are certain things in life that I find too 'froo froo' or 'new age-y' for me. Namely yoga (and any of it's near cousins), meditation, and being 'one with nature'. I gave up on traditional yoga long ago, after I attended a class where the instructor told the class to imagine ourselves as a tree (a tree?!? Really?!). After that, I gave up for the (justifiable) fear of inappropriate laughing. I also had serious doubts as to any health/workout benefits for an activity that didn't require sweating. You see, my first few years of group gym classes were entirely devoted to kickboxing. Yoga and kickboxing... not so similar.

Flash forward to now. After pleasantly experimenting with Bikram yoga in London (aka hot yoga- the holy grail of sweaty classes), I decided to give yoga another try. I have to admit, my first power yoga class kicked my butt. My arms were sore for 3 days. Good job teach! The only con? At the end of class, when we were relaxing/meditating while lying on the floor (me? half asleep, possibly drooling), the girl next to me evidently had some kind of a 'breakthrough' and started sobbing hysterically. Awkward. But still, that didn't take away from the physical-ness of the class. I was sold.

Then I was invited to an interpretive dance session, which was described to me as "self expression through dance- without music, using your emotions, and the vibes you receive from your partners". Now, if you ask me to dance and play something with a good beat, I will shake my booty with the best of them, but erm... dancing, without music?! Pass.

I guess I haven't really broadened my horizons that much after all, have I. *sigh*