Live in the moment but not for the moment, because the best is yet to come.

Well, this week started with a bust.  Monday – BOOM – Migraine.  Awesome.  It happened in the hot room.  Monday night was actually a hot class (as far as hot goes here at the Radisson… more on that in a bit).  It was a loud class; “Boss” was practically yelling into the mic (or so it seemed to me that night). It was a bright class (no brighter than normal, but fluorescent lights are nothing if not bright). What a wonderful combination: heat + loudness + bright lights + migraine = HELL!  I went to the “nurse,” whom is really a massage therapist posing as our healthcare provider, and she gave me the cure-all for migraines.  Anyone who suffers from these God forsaken headaches needs to try this.  It is a remedy that will blow your mind.  Are you ready for this?  Grab a pen and paper; you won’t want to miss this.  Brace yourself.  If you have a migraine here at TT and you go see our “nurse,” she will give you ONE regular strength capsule of Tylenol and send you on your merry way back into the torture chamber of heat, yelling, and fluorescent lights.  Best part is, you don’t even need water to take it.  It just goes down on it’s own!  I know, I told you… Blown away right?  “Can you imagine?!”… after all these years, I finally found relief! Someone should bottle this and call it “Misery.”

If you try to get rich by bottling this, you might just need to work out a few kinks first, mainly the side effects.  The amazing remedy that it is, it’s blemished.  I suffered some unpleasant side effects. I was really hoping to feel better but instead, after the magic wore off, I ended up with a headache that lasted three and a half days.  Yeah, that might make people in the real world a little bit annoyed.  No worries though, if you want to market your product to those here in the Yoga Bubble, you’ll have no problems.  You see, we’re bulletproof, money-proof, wind-proof, sex-proof and above all else we are side-effect proof!  Well, clearly I’m the exception to the rule, but don’t let me discourage you.

We are assigned lines in the hot room.  They change daily and sequentially.  Since there are so many of us, we only get to see ourselves in the mirror every two weeks.  Everyone looks forward to those days in the front two rows.  After practicing behind rows upon rows of sweaty, mirror blocking yogis, when the day arrives for you to see yourself and how your practice has either improved or gone to shit, it adds a little bit of excitement to the mundane routine here in at TT.  All week we were anticipating Friday, not only because it was the end of the week, but also because it was our day, our day to park our mats on row 1!  Well, of course that went out the window when they announced that it was Recertification Week so there would be an extra 100 teachers joining us in the hot room.  Guess which rows were reserved especially for them?  You guessed it, rows 1 and 2 of course!  So, needless to say, my experience in row 1 in the mirror turned into an experience back in row 9 with more sweaty feet (upon other body parts) in front of me blocking the mirror.

Not only did the teachers seeking recertification join us, but Rajashree came back this week too.  She went through all the postures with us, using Ashley as a model. It was incredible to watch her do the postures and amazing to see how far she can get her flexible body into some of those postures.  Unfortunately, the setup wasn’t the most ideal, they were standing on a risen stage that was about 2 feet off the ground.  So, unless you were sitting in the front row (and I wasn’t), you couldn’t really see the details of what Ashley was doing and Rajashree was explaining.  It became next to impossible when she started going over the floor series and Ashley was laying down on that 2 foot stage and the rest of us were sitting in chairs, some 20 rows back and not on any type of incline.  However, it was great to learn more about the postures from Rajashree.  We also had an OB/Gyn come in and talk to us.  This was definitely a time-filling lecture with no relevance to yoga whatsoever.  The good news? He was funny and we were let out at 11 pm.  He told this one joke that got a huge response from the trainees here:

“A woman goes to a priest to get his blessing for her 5th marriage.  He looks at her and says, ‘The Catholic Church doesn’t allow divorce and you’ve been married and divorced FOUR times?  Why should allow God allow this one?’  She says, ‘Well, my first husband was a psychologist, all he did was talk. My second husband was a gynecologist, all he did was look.  My third husband was a contractor, he never finished the job.  My fourth husband was a politician, all he did was kick my ass.  This one is a lawyer, so at least he’ll screw me well.” 

Additionally, to kill more time, we had chiropractor/nutritionist come lecture us.  By lecture, I am referring to his very polished salesman tactics of getting people to believe in his product and think they NEED to buy this and they NEED to buy this NOW.  What was he selling you ask?  Well, he was hired to formulate an electrolyte-replenishing product for Bikram.  So, naturally, he was selling us that.  Let me first tell you that if you want to sell people a product they have to consume, you should make it either taste good or be intoxicating.  This product is neither of the two.  Bikram Balance might carry his name, it might get his stamp of approval, and who knows, it might even work.  That being said, there are tons of products out there that work AND taste halfway decent.  I will say, that some of the information he talked about regarding electrolyte balance and nutrition was actually pretty interesting. Bikrams in house council lawyer who talked about our rights and obligations as teachers… Blah, blah, blah…

There is a whole new meaning to “Friday night lights.”  After class on Friday, they announced to us that we had to sign in at 10:45 pm.  For what, we had no idea.  We never have any idea.  It could have been a lecture, a movie, a posture clinic, who knows what.  So begrudgingly, we all made our way back to the lecture hall to sign-in at 10:45 on a Friday night only to sit around until 12:30 before anyone moved.  At that time, the doors opened and we made our way into the lecture hall for what turned out to be hours on end of Mahabharata.  What is that you ask?  Only the most exhilarating of Sanskrit “Great Eipic of the Bharata Dynasty” made into a fascinating TV mini-series.  It is some of the best Indy acting I have ever seen with the most remarkable English subtitles that conveniently leave half of the scripted translation up to the viewer’s imagination.  Well, I suppose that would be a bit disheartening to some, but no, not us.  Laura and I drank tea, practiced dialogue and kicked ourselves for not sneaking out and heading back to our warm beds where the magical world of sleep awaited.  Not of much surprise, that was not something we got a lot of this week. 

After a full 3 hours of sleep, we marched right back into the hot room for Saturday morning class.  Grouchy, tired, irritated, and cold… yes cold, we practiced yoga.  Well, for this class, I use the term “practice” very lightly.  I honestly don’t know what the deal is with our “hot” room but it is at best, slightly warm.  A beloved friend, who I won’t name, said, “I sweat more sleeping than I do in here!”  I was under the impression that our classes here were going to be insanely hot but aside from a select few, the vast majority of our classes have been done in sub-standard heat.  I would venture to say that the hot room on Saturday was 90F, and I’m being generous.  Both Jim Kallett and Rajashree acknowledge the fact that the room just wasn’t hot enough.  Laura and I practiced next to each other, thank goodness. Despite getting yelled at from a girl in the row in front of us, we used our time wisely and discussed our weekend plans. We decided that we weren’t going to let our pent up anger and frustrations towards the completely irrational ongonings here at TT ruin our weekend, after all it was our last weekend here.  So, we opted to make the most of it and we rented a car, AKA – our “magic carpet ride.”

You just finished week 8, what are you going to do next?...

– We’re going to DISNEYLAND!!!

… And that’s just what we did!  People say that Disney is the happiest place on earth, and you know what, they’re right.  Aside from the little blip with it being a tad chilly.  (Anyone who knows me can attest that a tad chilly to most people equates to Arctic cold, freezing temps in my world.)  I was “where dreams come true” with friends only dreams could produce.  On Saturday, Laura, Dan, and I headed to Anaheim and we were able to check another thing off of our “LA To-Do List.”  We met someone famous, and by famous, we’re talking A-list famous.  I have been waiting my whole life to say this, and now I finally can.  I met Mickey Mouse!  I might be 29-years old, but I am still a kid at heart.  We stood in line and took advantage of the photo opp (a girl needs proof after all!).  We even slipped him a little smooch.  After our star sighting, there was something else we needed to do.  Something else we had been waiting a very long time to do.  Something both Laura and I had done with our dads when we were younger.  Something that left a lasting impression on us for years that we just couldn’t put off anymore.  That something… Space Mountain!  All these years later, and it didn’t disappoint! You should have seen the three of us parading around the place like we were kids… kids at Christmas… or kids at Disney… or better yet, all three!  Literally, it was Christmastime at Disneyland and we made sure that we embraced every last drop of our inner child.  We skipped and sang.  We went on rides and wore Mouse ears.  Oh, and we indulged in sweets, lots and lots of sweets.  We had hot cocoa, Jelly Belly’s, chocolates, caramel, cotton candy, and flavored sugar.  It was the perfect, balanced diet of a 6-year old!  It was magic.

A little caffeine to get our day started... and keep us awake!

A 'lil smooch for Mickey!

Minnie Christmas Hats!

SPACE MOUNTAIN!!!!

Yogi Love.... it was SO warm.  Can't you tell?

Fish faces look so much cooler in 3D

This is going to be the photo for our Christmas card :)

Sunday, is supposed to be a day of rest.  Here at TT, we revel in the idea of Sunday because it is our one day to be free.  Sunday is a the day where we don’t have to set our alarms, although despite exhaustion, I still get up at the same time I have to every other day of the week for class.  It’s the day where we can wear jeans or dresses, we can put on make-up and do our hair, we can wear jewelry and shoes!  It’s actually quite difficult to distinguish who is a yogi here on Sundays… that is, until you see someone carrying that amazing invention we call a Hydroflask.  Yep, that “water bottle” rightfully deserves it’s own class and name.  It’s actually teetering on the fence of being magical.  It keeps cold things cold (and I mean ICE cold) for 24 hours.  It keeps hot things hot (and I mean steaming hot) for 12 hours.  There are 443 dehydrated yogis running around this joint, but even on Sundays, we carry those sacred containers with us making us very easily detectable.  That is, unless you’ve got a magic carpet ride to show you a whole new world!  We used ours to go to another farmer’s market, go grocery shopping, get Laura a dress for graduation and me a faaaabuloouuus Thai massage (this one wasn’t sketchy like the place before).  That was all before getting sushi for dinner (YUMM) and frozen yogurt at Pinkberry for dessert (DOUBLE YUMM).  The best part of it all was simply driving around, blasting country music, and singing at the top of our lungs.

Pinkberry Bliss with our favorite yogurt master Antonio

Despite the disgruntling week here at TT, the weekend really made up for it. Everywhere we go, people ask if we are sisters.  Biologically, we might not be, but we like to think that we were destined to find each other.  We believe that we are “soul sisters” and let me tell you, sisters are family for life!

I was seriously considering titling this week's post "F**K the Process.  Let's go on a Magic Carpet Ride," but I heard something this week that really resonated with me and I think it's far more fitting.  So, let me end with this: Live in the moment but not for the moment, because the best is yet to come. 

Namaste!

When you’re looking for confidence, you just open your legs and there it is!

This week began with a late night movie.  Starting Monday with Bollywood is NOT my idea of fun.  Neither is staying up late on Friday night after extra posture clinics and another “film festival.”  At least on Friday, the movie wasn’t Bollywood.  We watched clips of Bikram from the 80’s-90’s making appearances on TV shows such as Merv Griffin and the like.  Everything he said back then is the same thing he says today.  I know that I “cannot start the Cadillac car with the Toyota key.”  It’s clear that his message hasn’t changed, although his arrogant demeanor certainly has.  He seemed to be a bit more genuine and authentic before he got all this fame and money.  Then again, I’m sure that’s the case for most people in Hollywood. 

After class on Wednesday, as we were laying in savasana, Bikram sang us a song.  It was a Hindi song so we didn’t know the words, nor could we understand them.  After he finished, I picked up my towel and mat and headed to the door, eager to get out of there.  I waited, along with all the other anxious yogis who wanted to leave the hot room.  The rule is, when Bikram is teaching, no one can leave the room until he has left.  So he walked to the back of the room, put on his shorts and came over to the door.  He stopped right there, his back against the door, as we were all waiting for him to exit so we could leave.  He looked at the crowd, at everyone except me and said, “not too bad?” and started signing again.  Then he looked directly at me, with a fierce stare.  He pointed to me and said, “You, you are beautiful, the most beautiful.  The most beautiful thing about you – your love.  Please, don’t give up on me!”  Never once blinking or losing eye contact with me, he turned around and left.  The guy standing next to me said, “well I guess he told you!”

On Wednesday night, because it was Halloween, we had a party.  Laura and I dressed up as Cirque du Soliel performers.  It was fun to see people all dressed up and embracing some of their creative sides that we don’t often get to see.  A group of guys (most of the males here at training) all got together and ordered costumes.  They were a group of Spartans who stormed into the party with their swords shouting, “LOCK THE KNEE. LOCK THE KNEE!!”  They were awesome!  We had to wait in line for 45 minutes to get some “food” which was all fried, meat filled, greasiness.  There were drinks, about five different options – all soda.  There was no water.  Let me preface this by saying, I am happy that we had this party instead of posture clinic/lecture/late night movie, however, after 7 weeks of two-a-days, we were dehydrated and thirsty.  We were starving for nutrients.  Our bodies were craving good old H2O and something decent to eat… not soda and samosas.

"LOCK THE KNEE! LOCK THE KNEE! LOCK THE KNEE!"

Cirque Performers

Since our training is “the best group yet,” and we finished the individual dialogue for each of the postures last week, this week we began stringing along 2, 3, and 4 postures at a time during posture clinics.  So many people thrived during this.  They remembered more of the dialogue than they thought they would.  They got up there and the nerves wore off after the first posture so by the third or fourth, they were rock stars.  Well, I said many, not all… not me.  I don’t know what it is about memorizing and reciting this stuff but I am sucking pretty badly at it and it’s not getting any easier.  During one of our posture clinics this week, I was up delivering Balancing Stick through Triangle, and after someone from the other group gave me some feedback.  This is a standard occurrence, people get up and deliver some postures and then others give them advice, critiques, etc.  People told me that I needed to have more confidence.  This one girl raised her hand and said, “when you’re looking for confidence, you just open your legs and there it is.”  She was right.  Every time I was lacking confidence and tried to get it, I opened my stance. It’s a more powerful position than standing with your feet together.  However, the double meaning of that statement was hilarious!  We all burst out into laughter, and it was for sure the best part of clinic that day.  That is certainly a memory we’ll all laugh about for years to come.  As for the getting the dialogue down, well, I certainly hope that fear doesn’t continue for years, or even months!  As the end of training approaches, the apprehension of not being able to get up on that podium and teach a whole 90-minute class using the dialogue for all 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises, scares the pants off of me!  I am just thankful for all those supportive yogis back home who will tell me I did great even if I didn’t… I’m banking on you guys!

Chika delivering Locust pose in Japanese during Posture Clinic 

(shh, you didn't see this photo)

Gabby taking a snooze in Posture Clinic

(nope, you didn't see this one either)

Lascel being, well, Lascel! Ohh the joys of Posture Clinic.

(You guessed it, this one didn't happen either)

Thursday, Jim Kallett lectured on teaching.  He said that the next two weeks we would be getting a lot of information from Bikram on teaching and postures.  I am really hoping Bikram goes over what the postures are supposed to look like when done correctly and how to correct students who might be doing them incorrectly.  I’m also really looking forward to learning about the benefits of each posture, both physically and medically. 

After Jim was done talking, he opened up the floor to questions.  In a previous lecture, he had discussed getting to your edge and pushing past it.  Someone asked how he suggested pushing past our edge.  His response, “your edge will change everyday, stop judging yourself, condemning yourself. Do the best you can and come back tomorrow. Don’t underestimate yourself. Stop fighting it, go with it, and learn how to move with it.” I’m going to take that advice and apply it to my edge right now – struggling with this damn dialogue! 

I was talking with Lascel about different postures, about how some of them come easy and some are hard.  There are certain postures where I wonder if I’ll ever get to “that” point and then there others where I got to that point on day 1, not even realizing that other people struggled with them.  Part of that is your body, your anatomy, the damage you’ve done to your joints over the years, the lifestyle you’ve lived up to this point, and some genetic predisposition.  Another part is practice… practice, practice, practice.  The more time you put into something, the harder you work at it, the better you’ll be.  You’ll see more drastic changes in your body and what it’s able to do, the more you practice.  That is true on the mental level as well.  If you tell yourself you can’t, you won’t.  If you tell yourself you can, you will.  When you combine the physical and the mental, well, you’re limitless.  When your mind and body work together, you might just get to “that” point. It’s amazing because when you’re ready, you’ll hear things that you’ve never heard before.  You’ll hear things that the teacher says EVERY single class, but didn’t register with your mind until you were ready to hear them.  That happened to me this week.  Lascel asked me if I could see my feet in Camel.  I looked at him with odd eyes, and said, “I don’t know, I’ve never looked!”  He was shocked.  I told him I hadn’t ever thought about it before.  He told me that his teachers tell him to look for his toes and if he couldn’t see those, to look for his towel.  So, the next day in class I did just that.  I looked for my feet; I didn’t see them.  Second set, I looked for my towel.  I saw that.  Then I thought, “my towel is awfully close to my feet…” and just like that, BOOM! I saw my toes!  I immediately flung out of the pose like a jackknife because I was so excited.  Now, the idea is to hold the posture so for any of you reading this and attempting to see your toes, please don’t jerk out and hurt yourself.  It won’t be worth it!  Although, seeing my toes was pretty gosh darn cool!

Lovely shot of our picnic on the floor- discussing how to see our toes in Camel.  Lascel swears that Ralph's makes the best fried chicken... ever!

This weekend wasn’t as exciting as last weekend but it was fun.  Going to the grocery store is pretty much a whole day excursion around here.  Waiting for the shuttle to take you to where you want to go, getting there, shopping, and then waiting for the shuttle to pick you back up; it’s so much longer than you’d expect a trip to the store to take.  However, Laura and I made the most of it on Saturday.  Since this was our adventure for the day, we turned our trip to Whole Foods into a field trip.  We walked around Plaza del Segundo, did some window-shopping and tried every flavor of yogurt that Pinkberry had to offer! The pomegranate and mango were aaamaaaazing!  On Sunday, we opted to try the bus system and venture over to Venice Beach, a place neither of us had been to before.  We went to Venice with a group of yogis.  We soaked up some November sunshine and loved every second of it.  We bought mangos from this lady walking around like those guys at ball games do, “Peanuts. Get yah peanuts he-ah!” The mango was so good, we called her back over for seconds.  This time we opted to try the “spicy” version with chili powder, lemon juice and salt.  DEEEELISH! We decided to walk on the boardwalk and head over to Santa Monica Beach.  On our way, we stopped at Muscle Beach where we naturally did more yoga.  Of course, we can’t seem to do yoga and not take pictures.  Our traveling yoga photo collection is growing.  It was a beautiful walk and by the time we reached the pier, it was a perfect opportunity for another photo session at sunset.  Those Pacific sunsets never get old! We saw the end of Route 66, took a ride on the Ferris wheel, and then decided it was time for something to eat.  We parted ways with the rest of our group, and Laura had been craving Italian, so we had a nice, little, romantic dinner for two at a cute Italian restaurant on the Santa Monica Promenade.  I love my yoga girlfriend.  It makes me sad to think that in two weeks she’ll be back in Canada, 10 hours away.  :’(

Mmm, mangos on the la playa.

Look what we can do! -Muscle Beach

Showing off our "muscles"

Toe Stand on the Balance Beam

Yogi Field Trip to Venice Beach

Can you say GORGEOUS?!

You can see the Santa Monica Pier in the background

On the Ferris Wheel

I’ve come to realize that despite my frustrations, annoyances, and aggravations with this place (TT that is), the hardest part is going to be leaving.  I have made some amazing friends and built some life-long relationships.  It’s a double-edged sword making such strong bonds with people here.  I mean, you can’t not when you spend 18ish hours a day with these people.  Going from seeing everyone so much to not being able to see them at all, is going to be a tough transition.  It’s exciting to think about visiting all my new friends across the globe, but the reality of how infrequently we’ll actually get to see each other is a sad one.  For now though, I’m going to make the most of these last two weeks.

443 yoga mats... airing out to dry

Namaste!

If you’re going through hell, keep on going…

Week 6 has come and gone.  So have many other things.  Now, officially two-thirds through this yoga boot camp, there have been numerous accounts of “triumphs, tears, and the torture chamber.”  This has been Hell Week #2 … with a lot of heaven thrown in.

To start the week, we had 6 ½ - 7 hours of posture clinic a day.  Memorizing and reciting four postures in one day and preparing to do the same the following day is no easy feat.  However, being the amazingly fabulous yogis that we are, we handled that task on top of incredible sleep deprivation remarkably well.  Pretty much, we rock.  I say that with the upmost sincerity.  I also say that because without each other, none of us would have made it this far with success.  We ARE each other’s rock.  

Group 13, AKA: “Lucky 13” – I love you all!

Little piece of heaven # 1: From the Lower East Side

NYC was representing here at TT on Monday night. Tricia, a studio owner from the Lower East Side taught our class.  I LOVED HER!  She was amazing!  She was full of energy.  She was tough, with a drill sergeant demeanor who held postures FOREVER!  She made us want to work hard though.  Throughout the class she referred to us as “teachers.”  This was the first time anyone had addressed us as such.  A couple of other things that stood out were in Balancing stick she said, “Your body should look like a ‘T’ as in Love…” and my favorite quote of the week, “Be nice. Work hard. Amazing things will come.”  Oh and, did I forget to mention that ‘T as in Tricia’ is Lady Gaga’s personal Bikram trainer?  Yeah, that’s right… I met my first pseudo star!

Life is all about balance, right?  So, to counter the amazing teacher and class on Monday night, one might say that Thursday zeroed out the scales.  For our evening class, we were led a teacher and studio owner from VA.  To keep the politics to a minimum, I won’t use her name but I will tell you that it was the WORST class I’ve taken.  When teacher’s come to TT and teach class, there is a certain expectation about the quality of instruction you’ll get, and when a teacher has been teaching for 10 years, well that expectation grows a bit more.  I guess this is a perfect case of why they tell us to “leave your expectations at the door”… because you’re going to get the unexpected.

When Bikram teaches, you never know what you’re in store for. You never know what will or won’t come out of his mouth.  You never know how long he’ll hold the postures or how long his class will go.  Friday night, Bikram taught.  I think he said “push” an extra 200 times.  He held the first set of triangle for what felt like 2 minutes. He went off on numerous tangents that I will refrain from restating here (but if you’re interested in his famous “Bikramisms” we can chat another time). It’s no wonder class was 110 minutes, 20 minutes longer than a “normal” class.

Little piece of heaven # 2: From the good ole Granite State

Wednesday afternoon, I was sitting in my room finishing up lunch after a study session at the pool.  There was a knock on the door.  I got up to answer it thinking it was housekeeping with towels.  I opened the door not to a Hispanic lady with linens but to a friendly, familiar face from the other side of the country.  Sara, my studio owner surprised me here in LA.  I had no idea she was coming, but I was sure glad she did.  She stayed for here through Saturday, took class in the enormous hot room, went to Whole Foods with me while I stocked up on grapes, and on Friday night before she headed home, we went out to dinner with Angelie, Hilary, Evan, Alex, and Alex’s studio owner.  We feasted on a smorgasbord of food, 4 types of lemonade, and 8 different types of cupcakes. 

Sara and Angelie at Lemonade

Little piece of heaven # 3: Good Luck and Hard Work

I think Sara brought with her all of the love, support and encouragement that all of my friends and family back home had been sending my way.  That and maybe some additional good luck… Wednesday, just a half hour or so after Sara’s surprise arrival; I was back in posture clinic.  I had been struggling with the dialogue up to this point, and a suggestion I received was to just get up and do it, go first.  So, that’s just what I did.  I got up first to do Camel.  For the first time in 2 weeks, I didn’t freeze.  I got through, start to finish, and did it pretty well.  I was so excited; I literally jumped up and down after I said the last word.  I was thrilled.  I sat down and began to work on the next posture, Rabbit.  This is my least favorite pose to do in class, mainly because I kind of suck at it.  It’s really hard for me to do and it hurts… a lot.  An hour and a half or so after I did Camel, I got back up to do Rabbit.  Not only did I NOT freeze, I flat out rocked that posture.  Two in a row and the second one was even better than the first.  The posture I’m the worst at in the hot room was the one I did the best on in posture clinic, go figure!  I was elated, so happy and so proud.  I had been working diligently and getting so frustrated with not getting to where I wanted to be.  I was hard on myself, but today I was proud.  I only wish Sara had been in that Cabana with us so she could have seen it.  It was a breakthrough for sure!

A little piece of heaven # 4: A Taste of New England in the Autumn

Let me first preface this by saying, I have the best sister in the world.  Friday night as I’m heading back to lecture, the concierge stops me to give me a package.  From whom?  You guessed it, Kim, my wicked awesome sister.  She sent me “Fall from Home.”  A pumpkin filled with yummy treats: a fresh picked apple, a caramel covered apple, mini painted pumpkin, mulling spices for cider, maple sugar candies, NH honey sticks, a whoopie pie, and a frame with pressed leaves from our yard.  So great and so perfect!  Thanks Freddie!

Nothing beats Fall in New England!

A little piece of heaven # 5: Body Surfing

Surf’s Up!  Laura and I headed to the beach on Saturday to soak up some Vitamin D without practicing dialogue!  It was so refreshing!  We did recruit some drunken guys on the beach to try and teach though.  They told us they wanted to learn how to “center their chi” and asked for our help.  Of course, we obliged.  It was hilarious, although I’m sure the day after they didn’t feel all that “centered” but more like hungover and sun burnt.  After our little yoga session, we went into the water and rode the waves.  We didn’t have a surfboard so we used the ones we were born with, our bodies.  I don’t remember laughing so hard.  We had a BLAST getting our asses kicked by those waves.  I think I still have sand and salt in my hair but it was so worth it!  The sunset after, well that was insane too...

Center that Chi fellas

Wish y'all were here for this!

A little piece of heaven # 6: "We're going to HOLLYWOOD!!! 

Today we did the touristy thing.  After the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, Keunah drove Laura and I around LA and we did all of the things people usually do the first day or two they’re here.  We just decided to wait 6 weeks.  We drove down Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Blvd, and Rodeo Drive. We saw the Hollywood sign, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Star Walk of Fame, and took quite a few photos with celebrities at the wax museum.  We went window shopping and played dress-up in Dolce & Gabbana.  $14,000 for a coat…. Ehh, that’s just pocket change! HAH!  Then we went over to Santa Monica for a little pampering.  We got mani/pedis and grabbed some dinner.  We got back to the hotel and just in time; being a tourist is tough work, we were pooped!

Look at the size of that tomato! 

Mmm, oysters!

Helloooo Hollywood!

Country Stars Gone Hollywood

Got into a bit of trouble here in Hollywood...

Johnny Castle, let me show you a thing or two

I got this under control Obama

90210

Cha-Ching! Pretty Woman Style!

The week began with an asinine amount of dialogue.  It ended with us erupting in screams of excitement, tears of joy, hugs for all, and lots and lots of smiles.  Why?  Well, at the conclusion of 6 weeks, we had done something no other group of trainees had done before, not in 40 training sessions, not ever… we finished all 26 postures.  We got through the dialogue hell and did it faster than any other group had done.   Add in having a weekend not filled with studying, allowed us to have a nice little break and see some of this city that has become our temporary home.  I guess it’s true… you can’t get to heaven until you’ve gone through hell!

Namaste!

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

Hell Week has Come and Gone… well, sort of!

Last weekend was pretty great.  Annie, my friend from Bikram Yoga Portsmouth was in LA for a conference last week.  She stopped by TT on Friday and took class with me.  We grabbed some dinner real quick before I had to be back for posture clinic.  It was SO nice to get out of this hotel and have a discussion with a “normal” person and not a crazy yoga trainee.  On Saturday, after our morning class I took a second “Team Saturday” class before heading to the beach with Laura and Lascel for some studying, a photo session, and some honey lattes.  Ohhh yeah, talk about delish?!  They were so good that Laura and I went back for seconds to warm us up after watching the sunset over the Pacific.  Sunday, I went to a Farmer’s Market with Dan and Amane.  This place was amazing!  I spent so much money but it was money well spent.  They had tons of local produce; I stalked up on fruits and veggies and of course, lots and lots of grapes.  There was this local, organic, stone-ground chocolate… umm yeah!  A whole new level of cocoa love!  After the market, Laura (who is also an avid Patriots fan) found a sports bar near our hotel where we watched the Patriots game.  We won’t talk about the score but I think Laura and I found our new Sunday hot spot for some yoga procrastination with the football crowd.

Monday we had our Anatomy final.  Second easiest test I’ve ever taken.  The only easier exam was the midterm!  Of course, having a healthcare background helped, but so did Dr. P.  He was the first teacher that I’ve had who made anatomy interesting and enjoyable.  So now that anatomy is over, posture clinics take up the majority of our day.  There was one day this week where we had to deliver four, yes FOUR, postures in one day!  I have been struggling a bit with the dialogue.  I “learn” it and then when I get up in front of the group to say it, I freeze.  I can’t remember anything.  I forget everything on the page so trying to remember which line comes next seems impossible.  One teacher had me take down my hair, shake my head around (think exotic dancer style) and then run around the room.  I had to do laps, faster and faster each time.  Then she made me start the dialogue again and I did a lot better.  I guess it got the nerves out and the energy up.  It worked!  Too bad I can’t run around the room every time… that wouldn’t fly in the real yoga classroom.

Our “hot” seems to have a mind of it’s own, either that or the people operating the heaters, like to mess with us.  I think the latter sounds a bit more realistic.  We have had classes that were only 95F, classes that were 120F and on Thursday, it was so hot that Bikram himself told the staff to turn it down.  “Boss, turn off one heater.  120F is okay but 140F is too hot.  I can’t stand here or I burn my feet!” Now that is something I never expected to hear, Bikram saying it was too hot?!  Can you imagine being in a room that hot filled with 450 people sweating their yoga butts off?!  What if I told you that the night before we were up until 4:30am watching a Bollywood film.  Yeah, a solid two hours of sleep before two scorching yoga classes.  Oy vey!  People were dropping like flies.  Bikram joked that he should change to the name to “Bikram’s Mortuary Yoga” with all of the “dead bodies” leaving the room!  The inconsistency with the heat means we never know if it’s going to be a “normal” hot room, a cold hot room, or a scorching hot room.  I think that is intentional though… the whole “we can’t control it so we shouldn’t worry about it” lesson. 

On top of that, we had some other late night Bikram lectures as well as a visiting lecturer.  John Burras, a Mind-Body Therapist, came and spoke to us on Thursday and Friday, amid our exhaustion, we listed to him talk about fascia.  Never have I heard that word said so many times… who knew fascia was such a hot topic!  He talked about “What is fascia?” and “Emotional Anatomy.” A lot of people thought his ideas were cuckoo, but I honestly thought he might be onto something.  I’m not saying I agree 100% with his philosophy but I am saying that I believe there is some validity to his ideas.  I’m skeptical yet open-minded, so I hear what he’s saying but I need to evaluate it for myself before deciding whether I agree or not with this theory.

At the end of our evening yoga class, we got some fantastic news… the rest of the night off!!!  I have never seen so much energy emitting from a single room in my life.  That hot room exploded with hooting and hollering, every last one of us was completely and entirely stoked about having Friday night off… and we needed it! I went out for sushi with a group of people in Venice.  I felt like a normal human being interacting with the real world.  It was fabulous.  Never in my life have I gotten so many compliments on how “pretty” I looked!  A little makeup and a pair of blue jeans goes a long way in the yoga bubble when everyone is used to being in t-shirts and sweats. 

Saturday was fun.  Laura and I went for a massage, a couple’s massage at that!  Thank goodness because if we had been in separate rooms, and I was by myself, I probably would have booked it out of there.  It was my first Thai massage, so the environment was different from what I’m used to.  Just imagine two beds, Laura and I each being straddle by two tiny Asian women, who were contorting our bodies and kicking the you-know-what out of us.  In the end, I’m so glad I didn’t leave – that massage was just what the doctor ordered.  It hurt but in a very good way.  Afterwards, we relaxed with some lattes at a café and put on our studious glasses to study dialogue.  Dialogue. Dialogue. Dialogue. We might have taken some gossip breaks, but hey, everyone needs a little distraction now and again!  Speaking of which, I plan on giving myself a 3-hourish distraction again today to watch the Patriots (hopefully) do some damage to the Jets.  It’s the little things in life, and for me, enjoying a little football on Sundays is a great way to keep me sane when so many people here are beginning to lose it.

People are freaking out and having meltdowns.  Everywhere I turn, someone is crying, screaming, throwing something, and just about everyone is contemplating leaving.  It might not be the best idea to have our hotel located IN the runway! I’ve heard stories about the “Hell Week” reputation that week 5 is known for, it seems to be no exception at this teacher training.  The good news for us… hell week continues into week 6.  They warned us that posture clinics are going to be even more intense (not that I can really imagine that!) and that we should expect to know 2-3 postures a day!  Yikes! I’m struggling with the dialogue, which is frustrating.  Having difficulty with one posture per day is tough, so it worries me when I need to learn more than that successfully.  What scares me the most is being able to recall all 26 postures that I’ve “learned” and teach an entire class… when I struggle with just ONE!

Eventually, in the future, I WILL know this dialogue!!!

The best part is that despite the frustrations, tears, fits of rage, and whatever else we feel here, everyone else is feeling it too.  We are becoming this great, big, supportive family.  We get it.  We get each other.  No one else from home, friends or family can really understand this process and what we are going through, but there are 442 other yogis who know EXACTLY what it feels like.  Just a few short weeks ago, I knew no one, not a single person here at the Radisson at LAX.  Now, I’ve made some amazing life-long bonds and friendships.  Despite being crazy (and yes, we can openly admit that), this group of strangers is growing fast into a kind, compassionate, loving and supportive family.  It amazes me just united such a large group of people from all over the world can become, and in such a short period of time.  Teacher Training Fall 2012 – I love you all!

Namaste!

Representing BYP at TT - Annie wasn't scared of the 450 other people practicing with her!

Trikanasana on the Beach w/ Laura

Hey check out his butt! (w/ Laura and Lascel)

It's our new favorite pose - Playtime-asana (w/ Laura)

Sunset on the beach

Pacific Sunset

Stone Ground Chocolate - Yummm!

Oh heck yeah! Grapes galore!

We thought this was hilarious.  A billboard above the Thai Massage place. (w/ Laura)

Team Awesome (minus Keunah... someone had to snap the photo!) How about a little sushi? (w/ Evan, Alex and Anna)