You Are the Light

Sometimes, you just have to be there. My friend, colleague, and fellow yoga bunny Kim told me earlier this week about glowga, a special class at Centered City Yoga. Naturally, I said I’d go.

What’s glowga, I hear you scream?

The idea behind it was that we are in a dark place in the universe right now, but light is persistent, and often the light comes from ourselves and others. There is a divine light within that can help us through difficult times.

We kitted ourselves out in shorts and tops--the advice was the more skin, the better. Our yoga instructor handed out glow-in-the-dark body paint and glowing plastic string, and we proceeded to decorate ourselves and each other with swirls and dots and other designs. The paint looked and felt a lot like glue, and didn’t seem to be very glowy, so I was a bit worried that we’d got the wrong bottle. But when the lights went out, it was fantastic! Some people were polka dotted, Kim had a big heart on her thigh and an om on her back, the guy in front of me had one big spiral on his torso, and I was a mishmash of swirls and streaks, with my midriff glowing particularly brightly. We did yoga by the light of each others' bodies, with musicians playing as we moved. About halfway through, our instructor noticed that we were fading, so he turned on the blacklight for us to recharge, and we danced to Staying Alive as our glow brightened.

It was hot and sweaty and we stuck to our mats and flaked glow paint til my mat looked like the milky way, and I got some in my eye during shoulder stand, and I found I have terrible balance in the dark, and then there were strobe lights and we danced again, and then we chanted and sang along to the music, and then did savasana as we were sung to, and our instructor quoted poetry and Leonard Cohen to us, and I loved loved loved every second.

The instructor seemed to enjoy it too, as he says he’s going to do it again. I will be there. You should too. Namaste.