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Yoga; Thursday, Second Period [06/01].

"Today," Rosa, as usual, wasted no time in getting the part where she actually had to talk and directly interact with her students out of the way, once enough of them were gathered at their usual spot on the beach, "we're going back to that whole 'eight limbs of yoga' thing I briefly mentioned last week, when we talked about Pranayama, or the focus on one's breathing while doing yoga. Another limb is Pratyahara, which deal a lot with the focus of the mind."

Be very proud of her, everyone, that she didn't immediately make a joke about how difficult or easy this may be for some of you, based on how unimpressive some of the minds of the class might be.

"With Pratyahara," Rosa continued, "we make the conscious effort to draw our awareness away from the external world and outside stimuli. Aware of our senses but detached from them, we turn our attention inward. This is probably the one most people have the most trouble with."

Not Rosa. At all. It was honestly her favorite part of yoga, not having to deal with any external bullshit, but, then again, she didn't exactly consider herself most people, either.

"So today we're going to go over a few asanas that should help encourage better Pranayama. They're going to seem simple, maybe even pointless, but the whole idea is that it isn't what you're doing out here," her hands swept around her shoulders a little to indicate the physical self, "but what's going on in here." Finger pointed to her head.

Which she was sure that, for some of them, was a pretty disturbing place. Or a completely empty one.Let's find out, shall we??

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Looking inward.

Gladiolus Amicitia

Nell Ingram

Dwight Hendrickson

But, of course, you couldn't work on your internal self unless your external self was stretched and ready, so there will be a few rounds of the Sun Salutation to get everyone warmed up for class, as usual, and hopefully, by now, for those still new to it, it will start feeling more familiar and easy.

Nell had actually added this to her morning routine, so she was pretty fluid at it by this point.

In a bit of a reverse of how things had gone last week, it was Gladio who was spending maybe a little less time focusing on his warm up and a little more time stealing glances Nell's way. Not that he expected to parse out much, if any of her disappointment from Tuesday had lingered over into today; she was so self-possessed even in the moment that he doubted she'd let it show much if that were the case. But just trying to get a feel in general about her mood, how she was doing, without being too pestering about it.

Nell... didn't know how she felt about things. Well, hurt, disappointed, confused, and maybe a bit angry all mixed in together, but also things like... did she stop by to see Steven today as she usually did? Did she ask him about Marc? Tattle on him? Pretend nothing had happened? She didn't know.

So... yoga. Focus. And at some point catching Gladio sneaking glances at her and blushing.

"Do I have something on my face?" she asked, brushing at it.

Gladio was already dealing with a few questions like that of his own...mostly around if he should ask Nell how she was doing or just leave it be, and around the fact that there was a good chance he might see Marc at the bar tonight, whether he should say something if he did or if that wasn't really his place to do so...but for now, he just felt a little bad if him checking on her made her feel a little self-conscious, but he also couldn't help a small smile.

"Just your nose," he said, "but I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be there."

And even though he sort of felt like he should just leave it there, he couldn't really help himself from asking, "Doin' alright?"

Could mean with the yoga. Could mean with the last couple of days. Could mean in general. It was nice and open like that, really.

Nell chuckled softly. "I should hope it belongs there."

She considered his question. "I'm... okay. Still kind of confused and a little hurt. And..." it was hard for her to admit this, "maybe a little angry?"

She sighed. "I know I need to say something to him, but I don't know what. Or where - since he seems to be avoiding me. And I don't know if I should go see Steven today the way I usually do, because I don't know if I should say something to him or ask him about Marc, and I don't want to be all awkward and -" She cut herself off.

"And you were prob'ly just wondering about my day. I'm good. And enjoying the yoga. And the company."

Well. At least all of that just flowing out of Nell so easily did wonders to abolish any sort of feeling bad about asking that Gladio may have had, and he couldn't help smile a little at that, too, even if the topic itself could hardly inspire a smile.

"I was wondering about your day," he told her, and if she was going to be so frank and honest, well, he would be, too. "But also about all that other stuff. Pretty much anything, really..."

He used the shifting into the next pose as a good excuse to be a little thoughtful about what to say next.

"I'm pretty angry about it, too."

And really struggling to hold it back, but, if anything, he was hoping the yoga today helped with that and didn't just make it worse because he really wasn't the best at freeing his mind of something really getting under his skin. Better, by a lot, than he used to be, but some things just really put all that hard work and improvement on his temper to the text. But maybe him saying so would help validate the her own anger about the situation.

"If he didn't want to come he could have at least told me," Nell said. "Didn't even have to talk to me, just text a 'not coming' thing or something. And I just... I don't know what I did."

Was he mad that she was doing some training with Gladio now? She wasn't giving that up, but maybe it bothered him.

"So, confused for sure and a little hurt that he'd do that and that I felt embarrassed in front of my friends and them feeling bad for me. And angry, 'cause why didn't he have the guts to say something to my face. I..." and this was even harder to say out loud, "I don't deserve to be treated that way. I'd've thought it was an accident and he forgot, 'cept he told you, so I know it was on purpose and that's just mean."

She blew a breath out and took a moment to settle herself. "M'sorry you're angry too. I kinda got you there to my house under false pretenses, thinking he was coming."

"False pre--" Gladio started, looking over at Nell now with a moment of confusion for a moment, before he managed to work out what she could have possibly have meant by that, and then he huffed. A little amused, but mostly just kind of mystified. "I don't know about any false pretenses, Nell, and you don't have anything to apologize for. I'm not angry at you..."

He didn't know if that's what she thought, but he figured it definitely didn't hurt to make that crystal clear.

"But I really don't think it's anything you did. Pretty sure this is all just Marc..." He let out his own, heavy sort of sigh, shaking his head to think of just how to put it, and just seemed to settle on, "It's not you. It's him."

He wanted so badly to tack on a 'being an asshole' there, but managed to hold that one back.

"I'm glad," she said. "I didn't really think you were, but I did tell you and Lana that Marc would be here and maybe I shouldn't have assumed he'd be there, but... he could have told me."

Nell sighed. "Maybe. He always thinks he's not a good person and I think he thinks we just don't understand how much bad stuff he's done - for Konshu and before. But he's helped me so much - made me feel safe, told me he'd help if I ever needed it. And now I don't know. If I do need him could I count on him to come now? I don't think I can. If you can't trust someone with the little stuff..." She shrugged and let out another sigh.

"And what do I say to Steven? Do I just pretend nothing happened?"

"I already knew he wasn't coming," Gladio reminded her, shrugging a shoulder slightly, as well as his progress through the sequence would allow. "I did kind of assume you knew that, too, though."

Clearly didn't stop him from showing up, either. If hanging out with Marc was such a high priority, he'd just talk to him more at the bar.

He sighed into the next move, shaking his head a little, frowning over what to say.

"I wouldn't pretend," he decided. "Maybe Steven can offer some more perspective on it, if anything, you know? I haven't really talked to the guy much," he honestly didn't even know about the whole shared-body thing; Gladio was still firmly under the impression they just looked alike, "but I can't imagine he'd be too happy to hear about it, either..."

"Steven is a really nice person," Nell said. "I just... I don't want it to seem like I'm tattling on Marc, though. Not if I haven't even talked to him. Steven always pushes Marc to be out more, so I know he wouldn't be happy."

She stretched up into the next pose. "I s'pose I could just go there and refuse to leave until he talks to me, but that would put Steven in an awful awkward position If Marc just wouldn't."

She was quiet for a long moment. "And if he did come out and said he just really didn't want to be around me or be my friend any more I don't know what I'd do. It would hurt a lot. I have to think about it before I just go saying things."

"Well," said Gladio, after a moment, "like I said on Tuesday, if that's the case...then that's his loss."

And he was an even bigger idiot that Gladio was already starting to suspect that he was.

"Way I see it, though," he then offered, "no reason to let this change anything about your relationship with Steven, too. If you usually stop in to see him, you should do that. And if it comes up, it comes up. If it doesn't....well..."

Gladio shrugged. "I wouldn't avoid it, but I maybe wouldn't go in with all accusations blazing, right off the bat."

Nell nodded, considering. "No, you're right. I don't want to say anything to Steven, certainly not till I've at least tried to reach out to Marc and maybe not even then. I'll just have to pretend they are two completely separate people."

She sighed. "I think we should still get together next Tuesday. We don't even have to watch baseball if we don't want to. I really liked having people - friends - at my house for a nice evening."

There was a small moment of Gladio thinking he may have misheard Nell a little there, since it sounded like she said she'd have to pretend they were two separate people, which didn't make much sense, but that was hardly the point right now.

"If you'll still have me," he said, throwing over a soft smile, "I'll still be there, whether there's baseball of not."

It wasn't really about the baseball, anyway.

"Of course I'll still have you," she said, and wasn't sure why she found herself blushing again. "You're welcome anytime and certainly I want you to come along to this!"

And that had nothing to do with baseball either.

"So now," Rosa then said, turning her head a little to loosen her neck a little more once their sun salutation sets were complete, "we're going to focus on Savasana, or the Corpse Pose. It's the kind of pose that seems almost too simple to even be a pose, but the point is that not all yoga asanas are physically challenging; some are meant to be mentally challenging. If you feel like you do want something more physically challenging, though, we can throw in Vrikshasana, or the Tree Pose, or if you really want to show off, the Supta Kurmasana, Bound Tortoise. Please don't try that one unless you're more advanced. I'm not taking any human pretzels to the clinic today.

"Balasana, or the Child's Pose, is also a good beginner-to-intermediate one for this, too. Let's take a moment to go over some of them, and then you can figure out what works best for you."

And then they could get to her favorite part, where everyone just shut up and got their yoga on.

Edited 2023-06-01 10:43 (UTC)

Nell was not going to attempt the Bound Tortoise, but the others seemed easy enough. And, of course, the Corpse Pose was a lovely way to just lie back and relax.

Gladio was just going to shake his head a little at the Corpse Pose and be glad that Prompto wasn't in the class, because he'd seen that guy try to argue the legitimacy of that exact pose nearly every five minutes during training.

The Bound Tortoise? No way in hell he was getting his body to bend like that; he was already getting flashbacks of awkwardly trying to squeeze through passages in caves that Noct, Iggy, and Prompto could all just slide through like it was nothing.

But he knew if the point of the exercise was to look inward, the Tree Pose would require too much concentration on his balance, so Child's Pose it was for him, though the inward thoughts might have to wait after the faint grunt of appreciation for what this was doing for his back.

"A cool down from Pratyahara seems a little unnecessary," Rosa had to admit, "but just to keep things balance, we'll do a few more Sun Salutations before finishing up. Or, if you're starting to feel more confident with some asanas and want to put together your own cool-down set, go ahead and do that, too."

Edited 2023-06-01 10:46 (UTC)

Which is usually the complete opposite as good for your mental well-being.

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Yoga; Thursday, Second Period [06/01].

Sign In - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Sign In - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Sign In - Yoga, 06/01.

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Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

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Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

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Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Re: Warm up: Sun Salutation - Yoga, 06/01.

Class Activity: Pratyahara - 06/01.

Re: Class Activity: Pratyahara - 06/01.

Re: Class Activity: Pratyahara - 06/01.

Cool Down - Yoga, 06/01.

Talk to the Teacher - Yoga, 06/01.

OOC - Yoga, 06/01.