As I continue to put my roots down in Raleigh, I’ve been keeping an eye out for upcoming community yoga events in order to spend more with other Raleigh yogis.
At 6:30 am last Friday, I joined Happy + Hale and Carrington Jackson and 200 fellow yogis in the Raleigh Rose Garden for sunrise yoga. Ever since doing a 30 day yoga challenge in April, I’ve come to love sunrise yoga even though I am in a serious relationship with my snooze button. I knew going to this event would help me wake up and start my day on the right foot. And I loved that it was being held at the Raleigh Rose Garden, a place I wanted to visit from my Raleigh bucket list. I also knew there would be other yogis there, but I wasn’t sure how many. The event reminded me of Project Yoga Richmond’s Saturday Salutations, but that event is usually at 9 am, not 6:30.
I was floored by how many people were already there when I arrived at 6:30 and how many people continued to come even after that! Carrington started practice by telling us to hug at least one person we didn’t know. This caught me off guard, most teachers start by asking you to go inward and focus on yourself, not those around you. Carrington focused the class on the community that was there and to love, not just that specific community, but everyone.
Normally, I would have wanted to go to an event like this with someone so I wasn’t by myself. But I knew that I needed to go to this event so I could experience the Raleigh yoga community and as we continued to move through the practice I felt so connected. At one of my last classes at Shockoe Slip Yoga in RVA I told the teacher that one of the biggest things I was going to miss when I moved was the community at SSY. I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a similar community when I moved to Raleigh. But after Friday, I realized how wrong that is.
I left Friday morning feeling energized with love and connection to so many others that came out to practice at 6:30 on a Friday morning. It makes me excited to continue to grow in this community and get to know more people in the community. The next Sunrise Yoga will be September 9 in City Plaza and I cannot wait to do yoga on Fayetteville Street with hundreds of other yogis again.
So, while this week is getting started and things are crazy because it’s Monday, remember to stop and smell the roses. Or better yet, do yoga among them.
Kathryn G. Flocco 