This week was a mentally tough week for me. One of my posture clinic mates is a running coach back home. She made the analogy that TT is like running a marathon & I agree. Although she has run 36 and I have run 9 or 10, I understood when she said posture #18 is like mile #18 of a marathon. We have 26 postures to learn. A marathon is 26.2 miles long. Miles 18-25 are so tough because at that point your feet have blisters, blisters may be bleeding, you may feel dizzy and wondering why the f*** am I doing this???? Crowds are usually few and far between and it takes a lot of mental strength at this point because even if your body can handle it, your mind is telling you to stop at the next gas station and take a cab back home. Maybe no one will even notice.
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| My mat, pumpkin & water in the hot room. |
But I am determined to become a good teacher. And from what I keep hearing, it is a life long journey. I will need to study the dialogue for the rest of my life.
We had double posture clinics last week and had to deliver sometimes 2 in one day. It's difficult to keep up the energy to do double yoga classes and be present for 6 hours of the same posture. Being present is hard work. I had to dig deep, REAL deep, to get up and deliver 2 in one day.
I was going through Bollywood withdrawl . I went to an optional Hrithk movie ( Dhoom 2) I only watched about 45 minutes because the tent was soooo cold and the subtitles ended. I did get my pic taken with Boss though! The weekends fly by. Sundays are all about GCL ( Groceries, Coffee, Laundry-- Thanks Jersey Shore!) I felt so sore and exhausted that I sat around the pool the remainder of the day and studied with my Swedish homegirls.
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The marriage of Yoga & Fascia explained. |
This week was dubbed "Fascia Week" by the staff. It was inspired by Jon Burras ( JonBurras.com), apparantly. Monday and Tuesday we were given lectures by Mr. Burras, who while admitting he had no medical credentials, took 8 hours to share his perspective of the the world with us. When I walked into the the lecture tent, I saw the dry erase board had "Fascia & Yoga", "Emotional Anatomy", & jonburras.com written on it. Kristina and I immediately looked at his site on my iphone, between his website and the strange props on the stage ( saran wrap, red & blue tinted sunglasse, mini skeleton) I decided to keep an open mind & "trust the process".
His perspective gradually started to induce rage in me. I tried to keep and open mind as he stated these were his opinions and he was only simply asking us to listen. It was really tough and I was slowly enveloped in a cloud of rage. Here are some of the things he told us:
"All doctors make MINIMUM $400k per year. They WANT you to be sick"
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| Mr. Burras helps us understand Fascia by using Saran Wrap |
"Gyms are just training people for war"
"Running can kill you"
"Vaccines are full of toxins"
"Bones float in a sea of fascia"
"Cancer patients create the cancer in their minds because they want attention"
"Let me tell you a story about my patient who gave herself breast cancer because she wanted attention from her husband".. The last one was a crowd favorite. The list goes on and on and an and the students' reactions were comical, to say the least.
Our class was divided into 2 groups: Those who were so impressed by Burras and nodded in amazement when he mentioned that our emotions are determined at conception. He never answered the questions asked by someone with a logical question ( say an MD?) and always answered "I'll get to that later". Later came & went and I left his lectures with a growling stomach and a sore ass.
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| My friend Johan dressed up for Halloween! |
Both my emotions and yoga were an emotional roller coaster this week. I had a lot of personal issues ( non-yoga related) to deal with and it kept me from focusing on memorizing postures and keeping a clear head during yoga. I even forgot to eat a snack during the break twice this week because I was taking care of personal things on the phone. I ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches twice about 1/2 hour before Bikram's 5pm class. This caused me to vomit during two classes this week. I ran out the yoga tent first time, but have since learned to bring a ziploc bag and an extra towel to hide such indiscretions. Ewwww!
Friday was a fun class. We were allowed to wear Halloween costumes. Because I was so tired, I simply wore orange and black. There were some creative costumes and it made the class so fun! Then Bikram threw a pizza party for us at 7:45 pm and it was just what we needed. Yum!
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| Costumes |
Signing off for now. Namaste.
