Alpaca Yoga-What Was I Thinking?

In January, I stated that my word for the year is COMMIT and I committed to a year of doing all kinds of new things, primarily things that made me uncomfortable. So, when I learned that alpaca yoga was being offered at a farm ten minutes from my house, I presented the marketing materials to my daughter-in-law and asked her to join me for the adventure. I did my research and learned that alpaca yoga can benefit physical and mental health due to the release of positive hormones. And, alpaca yoga is a natural antidepressant. Furthermore it can:

• Improve mood and outlook

• Reduce anxiety

• Greatly increase confidence and self-esteem (woo hoo)

• Increase empathy

• Reduce anger issues

• Assist in gaining trust

So, how many of you would raise your hand and say yes to taking your yoga mat, to an alpaca pasture, to spend an hour in various yoga poses, while communing with nature and alpacas?

I think many of you are raising your hand thinking what fun to hang out with cute animals with luxurious fluffy fleece. We both committed to stretch ourselves and spend an hour on a farm, down a gravel road where alpaca males were housed in the pasture to the right and females to the left (we were told they are separated for obvious reasons).

I knew there would be discomfort for me, I am a city girl. I also built up a degree of discomfort in my mind thinking about animal excrement (actually alpaca dung is called black gold). On the designated Sunday morning I arrived thirty minutes early. I selected the perfect spot for the yoga mats and was ready for some serious yoga, at the back of the pasture. I placed my mats and went out to take pictures of the cute animals that were lined up and ready for work. As I arrived back at my spot, two minutes before class I realized what I thought was the back of the class was actually the front and I had no desire to perform a downward dog at the front of the field in front of my eighteen classmates and eight alpacas. We quickly moved our mats to the back of the pasture and the class began. The cute alpacas paraded into the paddock strutting by each of us eager to visit and eat alfalfa from buckets placed near each participant.

The yoga commenced but with little focus as our interest was in our furry friends. I was interested in doing as instructed by our instructor but I was on hyper alert. All was going well until the first alpaca came next to me to a spot at the back row of the class and proceeded to release black gold (very expensive manure). The owner of the farm quickly came with a broom and a standup dustpan to clear the dump. Next, another alpaca came and released a massive amount of urine (think of a faucet turned on full force projecting from the backside). And then another and another. Alpaca yoga was no longer appealing to me. I pondered what an old-time farmer would think when he drove his John Deere past this farm filled with city women, paying money to do various poses while lying in a pasture, surrounded by animals that seemed to have a constant need to excrete matter.

Did I learn from doing something that made me uncomfortable?

I set a goal and completed the task.

I went outside my box on a Sunday morning at 9:00 when I could have been reading the New York Times, watching the CBS Sunday Morning Show or having a cup of tea.

I had an experience with my daughter-in-law and she said I smiled through the entire experience.

Do I want to do it again? Never.

Do I wish to spend time on a farm surrounded by animals that really aren’t that cute? Nope.

So what was the point? The point is to set little goals to engage in new experiences and JUST DO IT. Each time you will grow in some way and if nothing else, you will have a great story to tell.

Do you want to talk about how you can take baby steps toward doing new things? Contact me at nancybeardcoaching@gmail.com and we can set up a time to talk about how I can coach you as you choose new adventures.

Until next time.

Big hug,

Nancy

P.S The positive natural hormones that were promised were not released, I think it was slightly exaggerated marketing materials.