Lauren Lindley and Jenn Gleckman are new to yoga. They’re also new to Wanderlust. They are what we like refer to in the biz as, Super Newbies. Yoga touts its approachability to the masses, but most new practicioners are tentative. It’s hard not to be when media (Wanderlust included) constantly publishes photos of flexible bodies frozen in time doing circus-like poses. So, as they packed their bags, Lauren and Jenn recorded their reservations and shared them with us.
Anything sound familiar?
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Lauren: Knock, knock!
Jenn: Who’s there?
Lauren: Yoga…
Jenn: Yoga who?
Lauren: Yoga to try this; it feels goooood!
Jenn: Ugh.
Lauren: I was searching for some good yoga jokes to use this weekend and apparently there aren’t any. So yogis must have no sense of humor and they are going to disapprove of our sassy ways?!
Jenn: I get the impression that it’s a pretty earnest lot. Self-deprecation doesn’t seem to be yoga’s strong suit.
Lauren: This makes me feel moderately discouraged and wary of the next four days. I am clearly unyogic.
Jenn: I’m excited, but nervous, as this seems way out of my league. I can’t even touch my toes.
Lauren: That’s a myth that people can touch their toes. No one does that.
Jenn: Ha. Not from the photos I’ve seen. Plus, after this weekend’s hike, I’m still having difficulty walking which probably means I’ll be on the mat having an asthma attack as I try to inhale.
Lauren: I am concerned that I’m going to be judgey: that my preconceptions of people who have yoga “practices” are going to keep me from having a good time or have me rolling my eyes so much that they get stuck in the back of my head, as my mother would say.
Jenn: If I’m around, I’d be happy to whack you on the back of your head. I agree though: I’m more worried about feeling out of place and uncomfortable, and having that make me judge others because I’m coming from a place of insecurity. However, if you look at a yoga practice as simply one’s routine (or workout), then it’s not that far off from our swim ‘practice’, your running ‘practice’, or our Thursday night drinking ‘practice.’
Lauren: That is true. That being said, I don’t run around telling people that they should become runners because it will fix everything that ails them because running and swimming isn’t for everyone.
Jenn: Exactly. But we’re not attending a running or swimming festival. There will be drinking I hear. So there’s that.
Lauren: At least we are going into this together.
Jenn: Yes. There is that.
To see how the weekend went and how they felt, post festival, click here.
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Lauren Lindley is a Tahoe based traveling photographer. She is an adventurer and athlete claiming the following to her sports resume: runner, swimmer, cyclist, snowboarder, and sometimes climber. Lauren is a music lover, prolific reader of literature, and the only bottle of wine she doesn’t like has the word Merlot on it. Lauren is also a firm believer that guacamole is an all the time food and when she’s not doing athletics, you’ll probably find her on the dance floor.
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Jenn is a marketing consultant to the travel, recreation, & hospitality industries in real life, but her true passions involve playing outside as much as possible. She lives at Lake Tahoe in order to do just that. When she’s not skiing, hiking, mountain biking, or running after her dog while enjoying the majesty of the Sierra, she’s thinking about them and planning her next adventure.