I almost did not make it today for the early class. At 5AM, I was still deep in slumber. I had a hard time falling asleep again at 11pm and it wasn’t until 1am that I finally drifted off to sleep. ( at this point, the dog has got to get the blame… his incessant barking is causing everyone sleepless nights… )
But luckily, I have a good yoga friend who gave me a wake up call. 
Patrick started the class by asking us what is the meaning of “namaste”. This was our homework for today. I remembered during my very first “crush” on yoga, I devoured all the literature I had on yoga and that was when I dug around for meanings on terms used by teachers. There are several explanation of what “namaste” means :
From Wikipedia :
Taken literally, it means “I bow to you”. The word is derived from Sanskrit (namas): to bow, obeisance, reverential salutation, and (te): “to you”.
From Yoga Journal, answer by Aadil Palkhivala :
The gesture Namaste represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us that is located in the heart chakra. The gesture is an acknowledgment of the soul in one by the soul in another.
Ah, Divine spark. So what is the meaning of divine?
From Wiktionary :
divine (comparative more divine, superlative most divine)
1. of or pertaining to a god
2. eternal, holy, or otherwise supernatural.
3. of superhuman or surpassing excellence
4. beautiful, heavenly
I like the explanation of “4. beautiful, heavenly”. This can refer to anyone and anything. How you feel can be divine, your best friend looks divine in her wedding dress, the tiramisu taste divine, the skin cream feels divine on your skin, you feel divine in a heart opening backbends!
For the rest of the class, the emphasis was on rotating the thighs back (always bending the knees first to roll thighs out and then straighten the knees after ) and shoulders back in every pose that we do. Patrick wanted us to do a “Utkatasana” ( chair pose) in every pose including trikonasana, half moon,….
brighter connection within, outer body soft, inner body bright
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