Edel Coffey: I’m not the first person to do an hour-long meditation class and be embarrassingly converted

If practising compassion and awareness takes such little effort but can bring such huge benefits to our lives, it seems like a no-brainer.

28/01/2022

Last week, I discovered there is a yoga and fitness centre just a couple of minutes from where I live. Well, I thought, if this is not a sign from the gods I don’t know what is. I looked at the schedule and decided to ease myself back into my imagined future life of fitness with a ‘meditative yoga’ class. I know this is really more like fitness for the mind than the body but they’re all connected, right?

As I made my way to the studio, I felt a pang of guilt as I passed a high-tempo fitness class that was taking place next door, complete with pumping music and a motivational instructor. I’ve done this sort of class plenty of times in the past. I once even took part in a strict fitness regime where the instructor used to give participants the odd kick to encourage them to finish their push-ups (talk about kicking someone while they’re down), and a fellow classmate’s motivational self-talk consisted of shouting ‘come on Frances you f***ing c***!’ as sweat and tears dripped from his face. Not exactly a shining example of self-compassion. But those were the heady days of Celtic Tiger Ireland. Nowadays, if I get to watch an episode of Bling Empire while walking on the treadmill I consider it a win. In other words, my fitness goals these days are more headspace- than muscle-mass-oriented. Hence the meditative yoga class.