Yesterday marked the Spring Equinox and the supposed "beginning of spring"; however if you currently reside in Reno you wouldn't be able to tell that from the inclement weather we have been facing the past month. To celebrate the occasion, my mentor related to all things healthy, Granolafer, mentioned that she was teaching a yoga class called "The Great 108"; a quarterly event that has people doing 108 sun salutations in recognition of the equinox.

Why 108? I asked a similar question when I heard the seemingly arbitrary number. Tibetan prayer beads have 108 beads, there are 108 spiritual sites in India, and there are 108 energy intersections in the body, just to name a few reasons why. Ultimately the experiences serves as a way to detox old values and beliefs that we hold onto and also serve as a way to tap into the collective consciousness of individuals and energies around the world.

So, I donned my sparkly headband and headed out for a night of epic yoga. Sun salutations have 8 poses that one must complete in order to do a full rotation. Most of it is a lot of bending and reaching your arms to the stars. There is just that one pesky part where you dive into plank position and do a push-up ... 108 times. We did them in sets of 20 and had to come up with an intention for each new set of 20 - everything from improving our personal lives, healing relationships with those around us, and to affect change throughout the world.

I was completely centered and focused on grounding my spiritual energies, when this tall, muscularly tanned man walked into the room. Though there were many spots he could have chosen to set up shop anywhere in the room but decided to lay his mat down right in front of me ... and I mean literally in front of me. So now instead of focusing on how I could better myself and the world around me all I could focus on was my future husband, who just happened to be wearing of those tight lycra under armour shirts and white basketball shorts with black boxer briefs. After the class, I learned from Granolafer that he just happened to be a spinal surgeon fron South Africa ...... I'm just saying.

So we start and I am flying through these sun salutations, believing that 108 is nothing, and I would easily complete the 108. Then ... we hit 60 ... and as sweat was pouring down my face, I considered retreating to child pose on the mat and waiting for it to be over. Then I looked over and saw Granolafer's 9 year old son kicking butt and taking names and realized he would never let me hear the end of it should I give up now. So 108 later and I cannot feel my legs, my lower back is hurting, and my big toes are raw from the yoga mat. The best part of the whole class was once we hit 100, Granolafer came around and spread glitter all over us to complete the final 8. I truly believe that the only way I completed the 108 was through the power of the glitter.

So once I detoxed, set intentions of how to make my life better and the lives of others better, and was glitterfied, I did the only thing that I could of that made sense; I went to the bar, sang loud karaoke, and drank. Well so much for detox! Welcome to Spring everyone!