Namyopia

Everyone who wears glasses has at some point had to function, perform, and somehow get by without being able to see properly. You fell and broke your glasses rollerblading, you're 10 km from home, and well, you can sort of mostly see well enough to wheel home carefully. If you stay away from the grass. And you'll keep your hands out, just in case. After tearing a contact lens today while changing for yoga class, I decided to give the class a try with glasses. I hate wearing glasses for sports because they move around, virtually eliminate peripheral vision, get in the way, and only provide relative depth perception - all things that take away from a enjoyable sporting experience. In certain positions, they also just plain fall off. Now, in most sports, like running, skiing, or cycling, that usually won't happen since your head remains upright. In yoga, however, three moves in and you're upside down, glasses on the mat or at least dangling annoyingly while gravity fights to pull them away from you. So, first downward dog and they were history. This left me with another challenge: seeing the instructor. Luckily, I'd been going to the class before so I could follow what she was doing from her verbal instructions. However, instead of looking like photo 1 below, she looked more like photo 2:

On top of that, the room was dark. One thing I noticed, though, is that I depend on visually focusing on a point to maintain my equilibrium in balance poses. Not being able to focus made these a little tricky. Luckily, I didn't take topple and take anyone out during these poses. All went well, actually - certainly much better than R's yoga Nazi substitute instructor who apparently said "Those of you have bad energy should leave the class right now." No chakra for you! Step aside. (photos from Lululemon.)