Change your mind

I love Saturdays. Bikram thinks that westerners use the word love too freely! We love everything! I have always loved getting up and going to practice (whether it be yoga or rowing) first thing on a Saturday morning. And this morning was no different. Even though my body was a little tight I still managed to work really hard. And then the rest of the day is just bliss. You can fully enjoy yourself knowing that you took the time to do something for yourself in the morning.

We had an excellent teacher this morning, Ben from Austalia. He reminded me of a very important thought process during class today. He said 'all you have to do is CHANGE YOUR MIND'. This is especially true for me right now while at training and have found myself bothered about some things. All I have to do is change my mind about the things that I think are bothering me. I have the ability to change the way that I think of those things. I can choose to not let them bother me. Another example is of a woman that is in my posture clinic group who completely believes that she is incapable of learning the dialogue. She has convinced herself that she can't do it. All she has to do is change her mind - and believe that she can learn the dialogue, that it is possible. So, there it is. CHANGE YOUR MIND. About anything. It's pretty cool.

Okay –so it’s time for an update. Well, the game has definitely changed around here over the past two weeks. I kinda feel like I’ve been bitch slapped. But, I had to have known that it was going all too well. Bikram came back at the beginning of last week and our nights of going to bed by 11:30pm were long gone.

Week 5 turned out to be so much more difficult than I had anticipated. Many others also seem to hit a wall and were struggling. Emotions of all sorts were running high. I wasn’t really upset but just felt a bit daunted by each day. It was a hard week but when it was all said and done it still went by very quickly. Week 6 turned out to not be nearly as challenging as I had expected it to be, and it passed very quickly. I guess it’s another example of learning to let go of expectations.

The pace of posture clinic has really picked up and we are on Bow pose now, which is pretty close to the end of the class for those of you who aren’t familiar with the practice. I am still doing well with the dialogue but I did have my first dialogue block since training started. I was delivering Locust pose and I totally forgot the dialogue. I actually paused long enough that the evaluators had to tell me to keep going. Arrrgghhh……I was frustrated afterwards cause I had been doing so well in posture clinic and I didn’t handle the block very well. If we blank out we are suppose to just figure out a way to keep going cause if that were to happen in class you have to fake it til you make so that your students have no idea. Today was a better day for posture clinic – I delivered Full Locust and afterwards was told that I could teach today, which is good since I will really be teaching in 3 weeks. Holy crap! It’s all really happening.

On that note – I am on the teaching schedule to teach the morning after I get home. Just knowing this is really motivating me to work hard on the dialogue. Not only learning it verbatim but really learning how to deliver it in a way that motivates and inspires students. It is a learning process that will go on as long as I teach but even now it is important to take the first step beyond just regurgitating words that we have memorized.

Okay – enough of that. I’m boring you. But, that’s a given cause who really is interested in reading about yoga unless you are a yogi. As for the hot room – weeks 3 and 4 were reasonable as far the temperature went. There were a couple of classes that even felt cold. Weeks 5 and 6 were more humid, which generally means more challenging. I like it a little hot so I can’t complain. My struggles in the room have mostly had to do with my own physical abilities. As I wrote in the last post – my body is feeling sore. Now, 6 weeks later it is feeling really sore. As long as you try the right way you will get 100 percent of the benefits so that’s what I am trying to do.

We had a pizza party tonight to celebrate 6 weeks at camp, as well as Halloween. There was SOOO much pizza it was crazy. Music was played, everyone danced and then we were told that we had the rest of the night off, which is huge right now! Yay!

Okay – to be honest, I am not feeling as peppy and optimistic as I was a couple of weeks ago but it is still all good. This too shall pass and I will be back to myself before I know it. Nothing that some yoga can’t take care of :)

On a whole other note – I have a new niece, Serafina. I will meet her when I return home. It is a challenge to stay present here at training when you know so much is going on at home. I will be living in Sidney when I go back so I will be living closer to my family than I have in over a decade. Pretty cool that we will all be able to spend lots of time together. My nephew, Sam, is the coolest kid ever and I’m sure that he will rub off his new baby sister.

Hope everyone is well. 3 more weeks…..whoot whoot.

Man, life is good! Where to start…..we are officially done with week 4. I still feel like a million bucks, although my body is definitely sore at this point. I did have a really great class yesterday morning though. I didn’t expect it to take 4 weeks (I thought it would be sooner) for my body to start to feel sore so I’m pretty happy about that.

So, how did week 4 go? Bikram has been out of town for the past two weeks so we have been getting a good amount of sleep each night, which really helps the cause. He is back this week and will be around until the end so who knows how the rest of it will play out. I have learned that it is best if you just stay present and stop trying to figure out what is going to happen tonight or tomorrow or this week or next week. You hear so many people talking as if they are in the know of what is happening or going to happen. Things change, things happen so it would be nice if some people would just stop acting as if they know more than others. And that brings me to my emotion of the week – irritation! Yes, I have been quite irritable. Not sure why. Maybe it’s because we’ve been doing the exact same thing for a month and we have still another month to go. Maybe it’s cause there is no privacy or time to just relax. Or, maybe it’s cause you hear people saying ridiculous things all the time and you just think to yourself ‘what the hell are you even talking about’. Just a bit of a rant there........sorry.

For the most part everyone here is doing really well. I am constantly amazed at the strength of everyone in class. We have had many of the staff teach this week, which has been really cool. It’s easy to forget that they are also teachers. They have all taught really wonderful classes – very inspiring.

Posture clinics – we are now working through Triangle posture, which is pretty much the half-way point in class. I have been doing well and am pretty happy about how I’ve done so far. I was a bit disappointed after Triangle on Friday cause I felt that I could have done a better job but I taught myself a good lesson. I wasn’t really feeling the energy of the posture clinic on Friday but I got up to say triangle anyways and I shouldn’t have – should’ve waited until Monday. Patience…..it slipped my mind.

We have our last anatomy test tomorrow. Our anatomy teacher, Dr. P was awesome. If all of my university professors were like him I may have gone to class more often! He knew how to keep our attention, even at 10 o’clock at night. He rocks – and is totally hilarious. He is an ER doctor and anatomy professor in Las Vegas and if he ever decides to quit his day jobs he could most definitely become a stand-up comedian. The other cool thing about Dr. P is that since he started teaching anatomy at teacher training in 2009 he has taken up Bikram yoga. So, while he was here he took most of the yoga classes with us, which is so cool. I have found that sharing the room with somebody is quite the bonding experience. You feel like you have an extra special connection with someone that you have practiced beside.

Ok – on to week 5. What will it bring? Who knows! I am still a bit surprised with myself cause it just seems to be going really well. I will continue to believe that I can do whatever I put my mind to. We have the power to convince ourselves of anything, whether it is be positive or negative. I just have to remember to take my own advice sometimes, especially when I feel myself getting worked up about something. It’s all a matter of perspective!

I'm in for the ride of the next 5 weeks and am very grateful for all the good that is in my life. Positive creates positive.

Hope everyone is well.

Week 3

Another week is gone. I feel like I've been here for two months but at the same time it has passed so quickly. I can feel the fatigue setting in now. My muscles are just plain tired. I have been good mentally it is just fatigue. I do have to say that the experience of rowing in university is definitely helping me out. We are dealing with many of the same emotions, struggles, physical challenges that I had to deal with as an athlete. I find myself drawing on those experiences all the time right now. And, I hear the teachers and staff saying the exact same things that I say to my athletes as a coach. But, we have only been here for three weeks so it could be a different story at the end of next week. It's pretty cool though to be able to feel like I will be able to pull this off. People are starting to get cranky but for the most part everyone is doing really well.

Also - I actually had the flu last week. You don't really have the option to participate so you just have to suck it up. But this practice actually helps you to feel better when you are sick so you just have to deal with it and get in the room and before you know it's all better. It took about two days and then it just turned into a bit of a cold. But, even with that you just truck on. One of the things that I would always tell my rowers is that 'our bodies are capable of much more than we give them credit for' and it is totally true. Many others are also sick but everyone is dealing and we are all happy that the weekend is here and we get a day and a half of rest.

We are going through such an intense cleansing process. I will learn, while here, exactly what is going on inside but this is more than just exercise. Yoga does heal and the more stories that I hear the more that I am in shock of how amazing the practice is. There is scientific reason and explanation for what is going on. It is healing, medicine, prevention all at once. But, this yoga is hard and that's why so many people would rather just go to the doctor and get a prescription. They have been talking about how this 90-minute series is the prescription. And, it's not only for the physical aspect but also for the mental - the same applies. A couple of years ago, I'm pretty sure that I could have gone to a doctor and got a prescription for an anti-depressant but instead I went to yoga and it was hard but it worked. Don't worry - they are not brain-washing me to the point where I am going to come home unrecognizable! But seriously, by committing to this practice it gives you the freedom to live the best life possible.

As for lectures, we started anatomy this week, which will last through the end of next week. It is pretty cool to learn what is going on with the yoga and the body. It is all very valuable and we will be tested on it so we can’t let it go in one ear and out the other. And besides, by knowing this info we will be able to answer all of those questions that students ask after you sputter off in class about how it heals bones to skin, fingertips to toes. It’s all true.

We are also right into poster clinic now. Poster clinic is when we get to deliver the other postures in front of a group (about 40 people) as well as teachers, who give you feedback. I am through Standing Head to Knee and so far, so good. My studying is going very well and I feel prepared as far as dialogue goes.

So, that’s about it for now. On to week 4. Oh yeah, we had a teacher from home visit this past week. She taught a class here, which was so cool. To have a familiar voice was more soothing that I ever thought it could be. I had such a good class.

Ok, that’s about it. Hope everyone is well.

The heat in the room is like fight club - you don't talk about it!