Well it's bound to happen once right? You're transitioning from Urdhva Mukha Svanasana to Adho Mukha Svanasana, you're breathing, you’re focused, you're fluid… you are yoga, then BAHHM BAHHM BAHHM BAHHM, off goes... the fire alarm?! Such was the case for yesterday's Flow practice at Bliss Body Yoga.

I've been lucky enough to never question why I go to class, or why I practice yoga, but I can say now I'm also lucky enough to have experienced the kind of ah-ha moment in my practice that turns knowing into understanding.

It WAS right in the middle of transitioning from one pose to another when the alarm came on. Like an air horn at a ball game it boomed, the studio’s hardwood floors only bouncing its echo louder. Our instructor Rachel (Wright, RYT 500… she’s great by the way!) handled it all very gracefully, even reaching instinctively for the fire extinguisher before deciding it was best to usher the class outside... Come to think about it, yoga mats probably are pretty flammable! After the initial surprise wore off and although no fire in sight, we calmly shuffled out the door and into the afternoon sun. Twenty minutes, a couple of firetrucks, and a few "why are they barefoot?" stares from the patrons of the restaurant two doors down, we got the all clear for re-entry.

The alarm was off, but the strobe was still going and making a tick-tick-tick noise like a metronome in the background. We decided to resume with our practice anyway. I'm surprised to say yet extremely grateful, despite the ticking and strobing, there was a moment somewhere between Uttanasana and Samasthiti where my focus had come back so strong, and where the Ujjayi breath and movement were so as one, that I realized I actually forgot for a moment that any of it had ever happened. Bliss? Nirvana? Who knows, but for that moment all was perfect.

The epiphany came that this was what all the teaching and practice has been for. To take that same serenity, that simple existence, out into our world that seems to be blaring its daily fire alarm at us... Bahhm Bahhm Bahhm. Between our projects and children, our work and play, the strobing of images off our computers, and TV's, and cell phones, and even those we create on the movie screens in our own heads, there is just being. That moment of centering that transcends us from life to actually being alive.

That, which I knew before but now fully understood, was what it was all for.

Uttanasana (Forward Fold) | Samasthiti (Mountain) | Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-facing Dog) | Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-facing Dog)

Thanks to Rachel & Bliss Body Yoga!!

Bliss Body Yoga | 4035 Lake Boone Trail #111, Raleigh, NC 27607 | (919) 480-2887 | www.blissbody-yoga.com