Week 8 – The Most Precious Thing You Own
Tuesday during Emmy’s class I did triangle pose for the first time in two weeks. By Thursday I was dong a fairly good Standing Bow, and by Friday I was almost doing the whole standing series again. It’s been a daily class by class exploration and healing process and I hope to be doing all the poses again next week. My body craves these postures and it feels so good to get back into the poses again. During Emmy’s class she started talking about the practice of Bikram yoga and how, when done properly, can take you to a blissful state of awareness and breath that is unparalleled by any other form of exercise. I know this is a bold statement but it’s true. Once the body comes into alignment and all the bones, muscles and breath are working together in harmony, then the asana becomes effortless. Emmy says that your body is the most precious thing you own and you better treat it right. The yoga body is the most beautiful body. Bikram yoga purifies you from the inside out. The Yoga body is natural and based on health, not fitness. By performing the yoga poses you become more balanced – medically, physically, and psychologically. It is a natural state of being and Nature is always balanced. You become a more healthy person by doing yoga and fitness is just a byproduct. Nice.
Week Eight – “Are we there yet?”
Holy crap week eight has been a drag. Everyone has senioritis real bad and we’re all struggling to stay present. The energy level in the training has gone down and the staff has asked us to not “check out” in these last few weeks as we complete our training. The daily routine has gotten old and we’re real tired of living in a hotel. It’s difficult to not have any freedom for such a long time. I can’t wait to get back home just to be able to have the luxury of getting in a car to drive somewhere. We’re not teachers yet and we still have more to learn. This week Rajashree was back for a few days from her trip to India and she went over the 26&2 series while someone demonstrated the postures. We were allowed to ask questions and it was very helpful to get some of those nagging questions that have bothered us all for such a long time answered. Next week Bikram will go over the series and I’m really looking forward to hearing him talk about each posture. After eight weeks of this rigorous schedule all of us are in a delirious state where every time we speak it has something to do with a “Bikramism” or some part of the dialogue. None of us speak normal English any more as certain words trigger bits of dialogue or things that Bikram always says. Every time I say “eventually” I now always follow it with “in the future” which is part of the dialogue. We’re always saying “Can you believe it? Think of it!” because Bikram says this all the time. I think we’re permanently changed and we will be like this forever.
Posture Clinics – “It ain’t over till the teacher trainee sings”
This week we got a chance to get together in our posture clinic groups two more times to recite even more dialogue. This time we were asked to give three postures, one after another just as we would do while teaching a class. We were told that it’s been a few years since they have had the trainees do this. It turns out that all the groups did so well in posture clinics that we finished early and that gave us time to get together again. I loved it and was so excited to get back together to deliver more dialogue. It has been the best part of training for me. I love my group so much and when we’re together we laugh so hard. They have become true friends and I’m really going to miss them when training is over. The way that they have structured posture clinics is great because it forces you to show your real self. When you get in front of a room full of people and have to deliver these poses it makes you raw and exposed and any front that you normally put up is demolished. That is why these groups become such good friends because we are forced to expose our true self and that is the most beautiful part of a person. Sunday night we decided to get the group together for a “last supper”. I might be bias, but we ARE the coolest group. Go Team 10! Oh Yeah, I can’t forget all the people here representing the Texas studios, below are photos of my posture clinic group and a photo of most of the Texas yogi’s y’all!
Team 10
Texas Yogi's
