SOPHROLOGY AND I

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

I like my yoga classes, because I do soft gymnastic and that keeps my muscles and the whole body fit. Our teacher had the good (?) idea to also introduce us to Sophrology. The official explanation of this thing is :

Sophrology is both a science which studies the human consciousness and techniques and methods using body mediation.It aims to reinforce the balance between our emotions, our thoughts and our behavior, to find our inner-resources and to improve their quality of life.
(if you want to know more just ask Wikipedia)

Curious from nature I was ready to try out the exercise. He put a CD player in the middle of the room, told us to lay down on our mats, close our eyes, relax and do what the voice told us. I did lay down and tried to relax and listened to the waves of the ocean coming out of the CD player. Suddenly a very honey soft voice told us to take consciousness of our whole body. I did and stated that my back ached. Then she told us to breath deeply and start relaxation from our face on til the toes. When I arrived relaxed at my toes, I suddenly thought that I have to go to the pedicurist, because my toe nails became too long. Quickly the voice made me come down on my mat for relaxation and breath with my toes. I tried but it didn't work, my lungs wanted to breath and my toes refused. Before suffocating, I quickly used my lungs again. My neighbor got a caughing attack.

The waves continued and the sweet voice told us to take conscience now of all parts of our legs and relax each muscle up til our waist. My back ached more. When finally we came to the chest and had to breath in with the chest and out with the belly, one jumped up, because she had got a cramp. This mixed my breathing up and I didn't know anymore with what I was breathing, but the waves made me think of laying at the beach, and I just started to dream about holidays, when besides me a man started to snore. We tried not to laugh but you could hear some giggles between the waves, the soft voice, and the breathings.

Finally the voice talked about our faces, to smooth all muscles and wrinkles (which didn't work with me, my wrinkles are still there) and then the whole session was over. We all sat up with more or less back aches, and only two of the whole group (we were 11) found this nice and efficient, all the others complained that the mats were too hard !

The result for me was I am not made for this, it made me rather stressed and I always had the wish to laugh, I couldn't keep my eyes closed because I found it more funny to watch the others in their breathing efforts.



And for my back it wasn't ideal either because I felt like the princess in the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea This was my first (and last) experience with Sophrology !