Pictures

This is the inside f our minibar. A tick for every yoga class with did over the nine weeks. Shannan is one ahead because she did one make up class on a Saturday morning for forgetting to sign in on day.
Last day of study at the pool before graduation day, going over the postures again.
Saying goodbye to the room with a view....
Dylan and Lauren are rehearsing their song for the talent show.
The night of the talent show all the pressure was off, we got to smile and enjoy life.
You are looking at 2 certified Bikram Yoga Teachers, can you tell? The feeling is priceless. Shannan and I will part ways soon after this. I'll miss her.
Chris was there and it was incredible to see him and have my first drink with him. I'm a very cheap date....

Week 9

Party week my b..t this week sucked! There was only one reason to feel like this was party week and that was that it was our last week here. Bikram was here the whole week and determined to make this week count.

Honestly it was sheer hell. No more posture clinics but we had lectures till Friday afternoon and Indian movies till the bitter end. It was a bit sad. Monday night was 2am, Tuesday 5.45am, Wednesday 2.30am, Thursday 3am! On Thursday night Bikram lectured about the breathing exercise till about 1am and then told us he wanted us to see an episode we’ve seen before once more…. This turned in to us watching three episodes again with him and us returning to our rooms again at 3am. It almost felt like we were kids that he just put in front of the TV because it’s easy.

Friday was supposed to be a lot of fun because it was our ‘talent show’ that night. Unfortunately everybody was so wiped out that it was really hard to look forward to it. The day was just a normal day like any other. At this point we look like absolute zombies, the bags under our eyes are turning weird shades of grey.

The talent show was fun, this group is loaded with musical talent. Who would ever know! It was a blast and I really enjoyed it. Plus this was really the evening all of us knew that by tomorrow that time we’d all be official certified Bikram Yoga teachers.

Something was going on with Bikram on Friday night not sure what it was. He left the talent show after 20 minutes leaving his big orange chair empty in the front row. It made me feel so bad for the people performing because I know they wanted him to see their performance. I was sitting third row and could clearly see that the senior staff was not too sure how to handle his absence.

Graduation was long……
There were a ton of family members to support us. We all had to tell the staff how many guests we were expecting so they would have a clear headcount for the dinner that evening.
After the 4 hours ceremony everyone was kind of standing around waiting to hear where to go for food. Then one of the senior staff members took the stage and told all of us Bikram had a falling out with the hotel over the food and that we were all on our own.
Okay!?!!
As one of my group mates put it very nicely, ‘this is just the icing on the cake’. It was pretty sad.

Chris, my roommate and I were already sitting at the hotel bar when all this happened. It was a funny feeling to get buzzed from one beer! Chris and I were on our way out after that and had our own dinner plans already. It was so good to see him.

As I said, this week was hell. We did not receive any love and were treated like s..t. I have no idea what set all of this off and we’ll probably never find out but it was anticlimactic to say the least. I would be very surprised if the next training will take place in Palm Springs again. Bikram mentioned Vegas, he loves the nightlife. Hopefully it will take place there so he can go out at night and the next Teacher Trainees can get some sleep at night.

I have successfully completed TT Spring ’09 and feel pretty darn good about it. Like Bikram told us, ‘you are now; bullet proof, fire proof, stress proof all proof’ Yes I am I can feel it, nothing can get me down and I am determined to become a killer Bikram Yoga teacher and help my fellow teachers spread this yoga around the globe.
I am so excited!

Chris and I are in Santa Barbara right now and are enjoying long walks, endless dinners and beautiful sunsets together. It’s so awesome to have some time together and reconnect before I jump back into my place in the family. Tomorrow we’ll fly back to Germany and I’ll be reunited with the boys again, I can’t wait.

Do I miss TT? No I don’t and I am not sure I will. I’ve met some wonderful people whom I will stay in touch with. Of course I’ll miss the doubles in a big hot room with 321 people. That amount of energy is intoxicating and addicting. But ‘the process’ I won’t miss. This was everything but a vacation, this was really hard and because of that at the end incredibly rewarding.

Bikram Yoga is what this is all about. And if you love the yoga and want to become a Bikram Yoga Teacher this training is the only way. As long as you are determined to teach and become part of the Bikram family, go for it! When in doubt, makes sure you know for sure that this is what you want to do before you sign up. If the love and passion to teach are not strong enough you won’t last, I’ve seen it in the people that left the training and experienced first hand what kept me going.

To all my family, friends, followers of this blog I’d like to say thank you. Thank you for following my journey and thank you for sending me your love, support and happy thoughts, I got them all and used them all up.

Be happy!
Martyntje Kyle

Pictures

Here is a picture of the core staff members. Most of them have been here for the full 9 weeks. It's a great group of very passionate people.
Shannan and I are waiting for an other lecture to start. Can you tell I've had some late nights?
Our last shopping round before we pack up and leave this place. The hotel is behind the palm trees so we've happily used the shopping cards to help us to the other side.
Claudia from group 8. She's 34, Romanian and has lived in Japan for the past 7 years.
Shawn from Santa Cruz. The day after dialog ended, he is dancing by the pool. Shawn lost his job a couple of months before TT and came here fully prepared. He is teaching already and I hope to take his class one day.
Three Canadian guys chilling by the pool. That is about all I know about them but they looked so relaxed that I had to take a picture.

All 26 postures. Add two breathing exercises to that and you have a Bikram Yoga class. Who needs dialog, can I just glue this poster to the wall on my first day and call it a silent class?

Week 8

As predicted week 8 was stressful. Bikram was here for the first half of it and believe it not he still found it necessary to keep us up for two night in a row. Till 3am to we watched Indian movies. We still had to do 4 postures, study them and present them by the end of the week.
Bikram wants us to see these movies because it’s part of the Indian culture I understand that but why doesn’t he play them during the day? No point in wasting energy there, it is what it is. We are wiped out again.

Posture clinic picked up big time and on Tuesday there were people in my group who ended up presenting three postures in one day!
I totally screwed up my last posture on Thursday afternoon. For Spine Twisting posture and the set up is very precise with lefts and rights and how to put one leg over the other and your hand and heel at the same spot. I was so tired it just didn’t flow out of my mouth at all. For those of you who don’t know me very well, lefts and rights are a problem for me even on my best days.
So because of my bad performance I was not as relieved as I wanted to be when Posture Clinic was officially done. My teacher told me to get over it, stop wanting to be perfect. You want to be a good teacher not a perfect teacher.

When I got back to the room that afternoon to change for the 5pm class Shannon was there and had exactly the same thing happen to her. We decided to go to the lobby bar after class to have a bite to eat there and celebrate the fact that we were done for now and that we could actually relax in the our and a half break we get between end of yoga class and evening lecture that starts at 9pm.

The vibe has instantly changed around the group. There is a huge sense of relieve that we don’t have to deliver for the next week and most of us are in a very happy mood.

Of course insecurity about teaching our first class kicks in immediately. It reminds me al lot of driving lessons. After I passed my driving test (in Eurpe, the one in the US was only 5 minutes) I didn’t think I could possibly drive the car by myself without the instructor right there next to me in the passengers seat. And then I also know I really started learning how to drive from the moment I did get behind the wheel and drove a lot.
So that’s what all of us have to do now, we have to get behind the wheel as fast as possible and teach as many classes as we can. Get as much feedback as we can and really start learning how to teach a good Bikram Yoga class.

Most of us have studios to get back to and classes lined up already. It sounds so exciting! I get home on a Wednesday and will go to Italy for our family vacation on the following Sunday. Not sure if I can get a class in but will try to get at least a practice round in before I leave. There have been many studio owners visiting over the past 8 weeks and a lot of them have asked for teachers and offered their mentorship to anyone who wants to come. If I were single I would definitely go for it, that’s such a great way to learn and experience what teaching will be like.

Lyn has done a great lecture this week about being a teacher. It was by far the best lecture we’ve had while we were here. She really painted a good picture of what to expect and also how to behave as a Bikram Yoga teacher.
You are not a student in your studio anymore and people will look at you now as a teacher. That means you have to meet all the expectations of a Certified Bikram Yoga Teacher even if you are not in the yoga room.
It was very powerful. Lyn was at one point the owner of 4 studios in the San Francisco area, she knows what she is talking about.
I wrote six pages full of notes and hope that most scenarios never happen, but if they do I know what to do.

More and more I understand the mental and physical healing power of the Bikram yoga series. Some peoples’ stories are incredible. There are a lot of recovering addicts here. Many people with depression and eating disorders.
Also a lot of people with titanium pins and plates in their bodies. This yoga has given them their life back and they have a very deep understanding of its healing power. It inspiring to listen to their journeys.

We’ve had some fun with our core staff members here too. They took the stage one by one on Friday night and shared their first teaching experiences with us. It was not all that reassuring but it was very funny. We’ve gotten all very attached to them and it’s so nice to here some of their stories.

Since the pressure is off here we are all way more relaxed. We are splitting up into three groups:

* There are the ones who are so sad it’s ending and don’t want to leave at all.
* There are the ones who are happy we are almost done but will have mixed feelings about returning home.
* And then there are the ones that can’t wait to go home. Are glad it’s over and would skip this last week if they could to get on the plane even sooner.

The last one sums it all up for me. Don’t get me wrong this was by all means a great experience and training. And I wouldn’t change anything about my decision to come here.
But my life in ‘the real world’ is great and will be even better now so I can’t wait to get back to it. My family, my friends, my own cooking. And of course start teaching.

H-O-M-E is where my guys are and where my heart is, where I strongly feel I belong and haven’t been in way too long.

Week 9 will be a fun week. We will still have a very full schedule but it won’t be stressful. There will be the double classes thought by senior teachers from all over the world and the 5pm by Bikram of course. Then there will be some amazing yoga presentations on stage for us to watch.

On Friday we have a talent show at night. That evening our talented fellow trainees will show us what they’ve got. Some are singing, there is a belly dancer I’ll tell you all about it in next weeks report.

Saturday is graduation day. It will start at 3pm and will go on for a long time I assume. Bikram will officially certify most of us that day. He has announced that there are some among us that he needs to work with for a little longer. Not sure how and when that all would work out but I am sure there is a plan for those people. Right after our graduation there will be a 1 week advance training here in Palm Springs. It’s already fully booked and even some of the people of my training even signed up for an extra week.

As of tonight I will officially start counting the ‘sleeps’ till Saturday. Not only will I become a Certified Bikram Yoga teacher, my husband will fly in from Germany to actually be there with me.
It’s big, this training was big, the fact that I did it is big, my feelings and emotions have been big. Becoming a Bikram Yoga teacher is big. Teaching this beautiful practice will be big.
When I said goodbye to the boys 8 weeks ago in the parking lot of the Santa Monica beach club I knew it was big.
Having Chris fly over here to be with me while I complete the cycle is huge.
There is nobody I’d rather share this with than Chris who always supports me in the right way and is always there for me. He is my perfect example and the one who I want to be nothing but perfect for. He is the rock-star who made it possible for met to be here and not have to worry about home for a moment. Who also took care of 'us' for the past 8 weeks while I was just taking care of ‘me’. It is a very humbling feeling and I am ever so grateful for all of it.

I am the luckiest girl I know! (I hope this MacBook is waterproof)

One day during our training Rajashree ended her class with a piece about 'love' she wanted to share. It really resonated with me and the more I read it the deeper I understand it and absolutely love it. I'd like to share it with you in the chapter below.

Love

The Invitation
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals, or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true, I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours or mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, or how you came to be here- I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Give me a sign

When I was little my mom often used the expression: "there is more between heaven and earth" in Dutch: "er is meer tussen hemel en aarde".
It's an expression that has always intrigued me.

When I walked into the yoga room on Thursday morning I felt I had nothing to give. The tank was empty. My body and soul felt raw. The first breathing exercise was so hard and my mind would not stop asking me ‘what are you doing here?'.

Determined not to give in I had to dig deep. By the time we got to Awkward pose I looked down at the ground and there is was…..

A crystal clear sign that I was exactly where I needed to be! The rest of my class was solid and I was on a mission to prove I got the message.

Pictures

This posture is so hard to do with a cold body on a concrete floor, but we step up to make sure our buddy who is delivering the posture does it well.
Just wanted to make sure you get the picture, this is for real and as you can see it does get used.
Shakti is doing great business here. The little Bikram shop in the hotel sells a special line of Shakti apparel with Bikram's logo on it. And then the plain tiger shorts that are a must have.
A hot head after shot.
And a hot belly, can you imagine how clean I am by now? From inside out bones to the skin...

Week 7

Lets say Sunday is the start of the week so I can tell you I was off to a great start. I booked myself a massage at the hotel spa (thank you mom). It was absolutely wonderful. The spa is located at the end of the hotel’s property and is really beautiful. Gorgeous rooms, steam-room and sauna Jacuzzi the whole deal. My massage was scheduled for 2.30pm but I checked in at 11am and just lounged by their outdoor pool with a hand full of my yoga buddies. The plan to study was out the door fast.

The massage was fantastic. A big man with big hands took all the knots out of my back and shoulders an hour full body massage felt like it went way too fast. The attention for my so overworked body was a big treat and I felt like a million bucks walking out of there even without a ‘happy ending’.

The group that I am surrounded with jokes often about our abstinence here.
We are all longing for our partners and often share all the bad things we’ll do to them when we see them again. It’s been seven weeks and not over yet!
It’s very funny to hear a bunch of moms/wives talk like horny frat boys. Our dads/husbands friends here think we are the perfect marriage material. We talk about beer and sex all the time!

This week was a heavy week. Physically a lot of us feel very exhausted and stiff. Our practice is stalling at a plateau and it feels like the body has a hard time to really give. Mentally a lot of us were burned out with the study of dialog and the repetition of the program here. Because of that there were a lot among us that really took the weekend to take a step back and completely relax.
So did I, I had all the intentions to study my dialog and be well prepared for week seven and instead I played the whole weekend. It felt so good.

We often say, ‘I wonder what the normal people do today?’ that is how we feel. We are moving through this hotel in a purple yoga bubble, sometimes I am not even sure others can see us.

All my guys are in Amsterdam this weekend, I am so happy for them. Of course I would have loved to be there with them but it gives me a very fuzzy feeling to know they are connecting with my family.

My phone calls with the boys have been such a great gift during these nine weeks. It has been very valuable to move out of the role of telling them what to do and instead having them share with me what they do. I love hearing their stories and their adventures. We talk every weekend and I am looking forward to these talk the whole week. Taking the time to connect that way is something that easily slips away when you try to get one kid to guitar lessons and the other to soccer practice before dinner and after the shower…..

They are two amazing young people and I am so incredibly proud of who they are and how they stand in life.

This training has been such a humbling experience in many ways.
My appreciation for this yoga was huge and has only grown since I’ve been here.

You often hear people say they are overwhelmed by their friends and family support and even the support of total strangers after they had to endure a tragedy. That is exactly how I feel. So incredibly loved and overwhelmed by all the support from everyone and I’m not going through any tragedy, this is all good.
My friends and family have been amazing. The teachers helping us through it here, the responds from people on my blog have been so great. It’s been a pleasure to be able to share my story with all of you.

One of my best friends will be here next weekend to take me out for the day and hang out away from all the yogis. Muriel and I met when I lived in LA for a year and a half, that’s already 11 years ago!! She is also Dutch and we instantly hit it off. This will be the second time she drives out to Palm Springs to hang out with me and I hope she knows how awesome that is. I’ll have week 8 to look forward to my time with her, it’ll be my price for working hard….

Week 8 will be again a heavy week. We have to finish the dialog and have about 6 postures to go to get through it. Bikram will be back here for week 8 and 9 so that means incredible classes and energy. He is truly and amazing person.

The goal is to wrap up the intense part of this training this week and have a fun filled week our last week here.

Pictures

It must be Saturday again....
This is group 8. We had to make a group picture for the yearbook that's going to be put together. Group 8 rocks!
This week was all about the dialog. Study, study, deliver and study some more. Study in front of the fire-pit at Starbucks.
Study with my buddy Karlie(Australian, living in Portland Oregon) before class.
Justine, Micha and Lisa on Jury duty. It was fun to deliver my posture to my mentor.
A night session of 4 hour posture clinic... we fit into each others bodies like a jigsaw puzzle.
Americans have a solution for any uncomfortable situation. It's really true. If you don't have to fly around the globe to get here for training bring this little chair.
Some kids never get enough.
Lauren (Reporter from Kansas). Does she look cool or what?

Week 6

Wow what a week, this week was full and the days felt endless. Still week 6 flew by at the same time.

Due to Bikram’s lectures the first couple of weeks we were here followed up by two weeks anatomy with Dr Tropani we are behind on schedule when it comes to Posture Clinics.
For us and the incredible staff coaching us through all of the clinics weeks 6 ment posture catch up week. It was nuts!
Yoga in the AM then 4 hours of posture clinic, where we sit on the carpet covered concrete floor while we take turns presenting/teaching our posture to two groups so 40 people and 4 visiting teachers.
Then again 5PM yoga class followed by 9PM till midnight, same room, same group, same concrete floor. We kept up with that pace the whole week and there were days were we’ve done two postures in a day. We did get a lot done.

Bikram and Rajashree were both here during the week, not the whole week but off and on. The location of this training is so much more convenient for them. It allows them to be here a lot and also be with their family and do all the other things they do. We’ve really seen a lot of them and that has been very nice. Bikram was not here to lecture but we were blessed with two killer classes again from both Bikram and Rajashree.

Rajashree’s Guru Dr Professor Das was here for two half days to lecture us. He grew up with Bikram and shares the same Guru, Bishnu Gosh. He was also the one introducing Rajahsree to Bikram. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this week.
Dr Das’ lecture was interesting (I think), we could have used some subtitles with this one……..

Because of the posture clinics I did spend a lot of time with my group. I love my group! It’s a very humbling experience to be put in a stressful situation like we were this week and really pull through as a group. We are a mature and calm group, there is no sense of competition and nothing but support and as one of the teachers called it “good juju”.
It’s not easy to go up and present and some of us are more challenged in memorizing the dialog than others. Knowing your whole group is literally behind you is awesome.

While time is passing we get more involved with each other’s life. It’s been nice to slowly get to know a little bit more about the people in my group. There is this beautiful girl for example that always walks in a little late at posture clinic. And she always looks like she just came running out of the shower. She asked me the other day if she could interview me. She is here on a job. Lauren is a freelance reporter and is recording a radio diary of the Bikram TT. Taking the training as a trainee and recording herself for an hour after each class. She also interviews a few people and follows their experience along the way. I had no idea.
Today Lauren and I sat in a sound proof room of the hotel and she interviewed me for over an hour. It was cool, she is a pro and very comfortable in her role. Her questions allowed me to look at ‘me’ at this training and forced me to put my experience into words. We started at my initial impression of things at the beginning of the training then moved on to where we are now. We covered, expectations, frustrations, and life outside the training.
We’ll catch up again at the end of training and then again three weeks after the training.
It was time well spend almost therapeutic. Lauren and I connected well she was able to make the interview very personal. We had to end it with a big hug.
Just an other day at Bikram Yoga TT…..
One of the other people Lauren is following is a fireman from New York I can't wait to hear his story.

Week 6 is over and yes I am homesick, sometimes I miss my boys so much it hurts my chest. If somebody would offer to finish this training for me so I could go home to my guys I would be really tempted. Three weeks to go and I am counting. But I am still in the moment and determined to finish strong.

The support from our core staff and visiting teachers makes all the difference. They are sitting in these dark twilight zone hotel rooms on the concrete floor till midnight right there with us. Supporting us, coaching us and showering us in positive constructive feedback. They are here to give and they are giving a lot.

Week 7 bring it on. Rajashree will lecture this week, she is amazing and doesn’t require any subtitles so I am very excited to hear what she will share with us.

And of course some more yoga we've done over 60 classes in a row now,
still love it maybe I love it even….more and more and more and more.


Bikramism:

“When you teach your class and the students tell you it’s too hot it in the room, make it hotter!
If they tell you it’s too hard, make it harder!
If they tell you your studio stinks, fart in their faces!”

Rajashree’s slip up during the third part of ‘Awkward Pose’:
“sqeeze your balls between your knees as hard as you can”

Pictures

Justine is here and joining us for class in the big top.
That felt good and even better, we are done....

Emmy, the master of all postures explains and corrects Triangle on stage.
Bikram's class right before we go into Cobra.....you don't want to know what happened next.
Waving goodbye to Anatomy. Miss ya!
The pool on Memorial Day, or what's left of the pool. Thankfully we have three pools here. I think this one needs to be completely drained and then refilled with fresh water. Absolutely yuk!
This puts any bad day in perspective again....

Week 5

Week 5

Week four ended with Memorial Day weekend. The hotel had 100% occupancy it was an absolute zoo out here. Being here as a permanent resident for the past five weeks has been weird and interesting. It’s a little bit like ‘The Truman Show’. Us yogis move through all the corners of the hotel and make the same loop several times a day. Sometimes it feels like the other guests can’t really see us.

Last week the whole hotel was getting ready for Memorial Day weekend. They put blue dye in the lagoon (poor ducks), had the whole hotel vacuumed. And to top it all off the carped cleaners were here. The whole hotel smelled like WET DOG!
You should have seen the crowd! It would be like having your whole house cleaned the day before your son has his whole soccer team over for a BBQ and sleepover....why.

To top it all of we had the fire alarm go off in our rooms twice. My roommate and I were standing in our PJ’s in front of the hotel at 2am to then found out that some drunk idiot had triggered the alarm. Needless to say, when it went of again at 4am we chose to burn down with the building.

We survived but were clearly missing out on cocktail and party time. Instead we had our last anatomy test to get ready for and postures to master.

Week five was rough. Bikram was here half the time. His classes are tough and he is very harsh on people. He yells his head off in the class! I like his classes you work incredibly hard. We’ve had to do three or four sets of some postures until everyone got it right. He has definitely toughened up a lot, no more ‘are you okay honey?’.

Bikram made us sit through two of his Indian movies again this week. 4.30am and 3am and it has not done much good for the vibe here. People are cracking, there is a lot of crying and a lot of anger at this point. We’ve seen numerous interventions between teachers and trainees at our posture clinics. Some people just completely loose it, mainly because of the lack of rest. Our bodies are sore, our souls are raw and our spirit is depleted.

This was definitely a down week for me. The repetition of things starts to irritate and to be really honest; the drama is what gets me the most. It is absolutely exhausting even if you choose not to get involved.

Weeks six looks like a promising week. We have lectures scheduled with Doctors and Rajashree will be here. She is so lovely and has a lot to share about Bikram yoga. I’m excited for it all.

My wonderful friend and teacher Justine is here the whole week, I am so happy. She arrived here on Friday and brought over a lot of letters and chocolate from all my yoga buddies in Germany. And of course letters from my boys. It’s very special to know everyone is so supportive. You make my day.


Bikramisms;

“Rolls Royse factory makes Rolls Royse no Honda,
Bikram Yoga TT makes Bikrams.”

“Bikram yoga class is like a bank robbery, do exactly as I say and nobody gets hurt.”

“Boss, do the back bend! I don’t care if you have titanium plates in your back, I have cellulite on my dick. NOW DO THE F…..G BACK BEND!”

“The mind is a computer. You make your own software. You eat 3 times a day and need 7 hours of sleep only if that is how you’ve programmed it”

Pictures

A happy sweaty after shot.
This is Kellie from Alabama, she has a thicker accent than me I love it! We are in posture group 8 together.
A last glance at the dialog before I get up to deliver.
There we go... Standing Bow Pulling Pose. It went well, it gets easier every time I do it.
The Jury. Four guest teachers who grade our performance and give us feedback. All of them are great. They are incredibly supportive of all of us and their comments are always constructive. Posture clinics are fun and very valuable for us as future teachers.
Once you have delivered the dialog you move up into the line of demonstrators. As you can see we are in a hotel room.

Bikram stretches his body to get ready to teach a class. I promise you it was a good one again...

Week 4

Week 4

Bikram is back and we know it! He came back in full force this week, classes were challenging and he turned up the heat. “I hate lazy people!” was the red thread through this week.
Three nights in a row of Indian movies, the first one ended at 4.30am…… caused a little tension in the group. It reminded me a lot of having my newborn baby and two year old at the same time. I never thought it was possible to be that tired again. Bikram Yoga TT got me to that same place. What got me through this week was taking it one day at the time and reminding myself twice a day that this yoga is a gas station.



Body and Mind

When you have control over your mind the sky is the limit.
For those of you who are not familiar with the experience of Bikram Yoga I’ll tap into that really quick. From the minute you enter the hot room your mind will tell you “it’s hot in here, it’s way too hot in here, let’s get out of here!” and once you forced that thought away the next one comes; “I can’t do this posture, I’m dizzy, there is no air in here, it’s hotter in here than the last time I went, I’ll sit down on my mat.”

One of the most beautiful things of this yoga is taking control over your mind. Inside and outside the yoga room
We’ve had some incredible classes from guest teacher over the past four weeks. Every teacher comes with his or her own passion and message and we learn so much from them while enjoying them killing us in the heat. Two messages really resonated with me and I’d love to share them with you.

Lynn one of the senior teachers here taught a class and told us from the start she was our mind, in other words push all your thoughts away and do as I say, not before and not after. This class gave me the biggest boost I’ve ever had. It was almost like an out of body experience. Because I trusted here completely she allowed me to go 150% into my postures, I gave it my all without any thoughts, it was liberating and incredible.

Jim also a senior teacher and studio owner gave me something else I really agree with. There are people that walk out of the yoga room, there are the ones that lay flat on their backs for 45 minutes out of 90 and then there are the ones that always skip certain postures. They are always the same people.
Jim told us during his class that your mind plays games with you, it’s like a spoiled little kid. If you skip a posture one morning you be sure your mind will remind you of that in your next class, it wants to skip it again. Same with walking out, laying flat, giving up. Don’t give in, push that thought away. Take control and build strength, determination, willpower. It’s beautiful.

I can proudly say I have never ever skipped a posture and always give it my best. Some days are better than others but I am committed to every posture in the series. This makes me feel strong, honest and respectful of myself and what this yoga means to me. Walking out of the hot room with my sweaty head up high feels good.
My power of being in the moment, in the present, in the here and now grows by the day. It’s a big gift I have been given by coming here.

Bikramisms:

"Sweetheart, bring your knees together this is not high-school!"

"Boss look forward, what are you looking at your balls for?"

“What is up with you Caucasians putting Chinese signs tattoos all over your bodies? Chinese have small dicks did you know that? Is that what it says on your arm, I have small dick!”

“Lock the f….g knee! I don’t care if you die I’ll jump on your coffin and yell, lock the knee, lock the knee, lock the knee!”

Camping in a **** Hotel

I know you guys all think we are spoiled in this fabulous hotel but please believe me when I tell you nothing is farther from the truth. Unless you brought a money tree with you, you are camping....
Most of us wash in the tub.
Our dryer is on the balcony. The desert provides a faster drying cycle than any dryer I ever owned. And if you don't mind crispy underwear it's fine.
The dishes happen in the bathroom...
And so do gourmet meals. The hotpot is the best purchase for this trip. It makes, tea, soup, boils eggs and veggies it's awesome.
We sleep on the floor!
As much as we can.........