I was pretty excited when I found out that I had an excuse
to try something new for this class and I began racking my brain of what exactly
it was that I wanted to try. There were a few new occupations I was considering,
but after exchanging some ideas with Laura, I remembered something that I’d
heard about around a year ago and I instantly knew what it was that I wanted do.
Last Tuesday, I began my new chosen occupation of aerial yoga and I think it’s
safe to say that I already love it!
Even though yoga has been around for thousands of years,
it’s something that within recent years has definitely become a more popular
form of exercise within our modern western society. I took my first yoga class
my freshman year of college and knew from the first couple classes that yoga
was going to be a meaningful part of my life. I continued the yoga class for
about a year until I moved, but I have kept up on doing simple poses for
stretching within my workout at the gym. Another important and meaningful part
of my life was gymnastics. It was the main sport that I did for ten years and was
something that I really enjoyed and looked forward to doing on a daily basis.
The reason aerial yoga was so appealing to me to begin with was because it
reminded me of both yoga and gymnastics. This occupation took something that I
enjoy doing now and is somewhat meaningful (yoga) and combined it with
something that I used to enjoy years ago and was super meaningful (gymnastics)!
So as far as placing this new occupation on the continuum of influence of self
vs. society, I would place this on the end closer to self because of the depth
of experience I have doing occupations regarding similar circumstances. Because
I have yet to engage in the occupation more than once it still lies a bit
towards the societal side, as well. However, I know as I continue to partake in
this new occupation and hopefully continue to enjoy it, it will become
something more meaningful each time and thus closer to the self-side of the
continuum.
Much like placement on the continuum, my two modes of human
thought regarding calculative and meditative thinking will also change as I
continue aerial yoga. As of I right now, I would deem my thought process
towards my new occupation to be more calculative because I am still thinking of
planning and investigating aspect of how I’m going to accomplish this endeavor.
As I am still learning and progressing, I will still need to formulate much of
the “how” aspect of things regarding poses and positions. As I continue to learn however, I know that my
thinking will further progress and begin to shift to a more meditative form of
thinking. This will allow me to reflect and build meaning to this new interest
of mine and start to ask not so much “how” but more along the lines of “why?”
Hi Lacey. First of all, I think you chose a great occupation to engage in! I have actually never heard of aerial yoga so I suppose you can say I had a minor aspect-dawning moment. I never would have guessed yoga could have been performed in such a fashion, but after your description of it and sharing a couple photos, I believe I have a slight understanding of its concepts.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I liked how you described how you believe you are in more of the calculative side of thinking as you are starting out, but hope to evolve into a meditative thinking over time. My question to you would be what is it you are hoping to receive or gain as an end goal once you have deeply delve into this occupation and are on the meditative form of thinking? Do you think the transaction from going from a calculative form of thinking to a meditative way is going to be easy and smooth, or will it take time to develop? Lastly, do you believe or hope that this experience will end up having as much meaning to you as does gymnastics?
I am interested in hearing more about your exploration in aerial yoga in the near future!
Jared-
ReplyDeleteThese are some really insightful questions! When I did yoga a few years ago, at first it was very calculative thinking because I really had no idea what I was doing. However, after a couple months I began to know what to expect during each class and my thinking shifted greatly to a meditative form where I was in a very relaxed state of mind throughout most of the session. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to reach such an in depth state of relaxation that I think that is my ultimate goal- to be able to reach that same state of relaxation while doing this.
Because this form of yoga is similar to things I've done in the past, but still new enough that I still have a lot of learn, I think it will certainly take some time to transition into the state of meditative thinking. However, because there is a sense of familiarity I think the transition of thought will be fairly smooth (I hope!)
I definitely hope this experience will be meaningful to me in a significant way, but I think it will be a different kind of meaning than gymnastics. The concept of the occupation was certainly intriguing to me in a way that reminded me of the sport and that's what drew me in, but gymnastics was never really something that brought me meditative thinking. It certainly required a great deal of hard work and dedication in order to better my abilities and was always required more calculative thinking. I believe as I continue partake in this occupation, it will bring me similar joy- but I don't think the meaning could ever quite reach the same point, if that makes sense?
Great questions- definitely made me do some thinking!