Week 1

It’s Friday today and I honestly feel like I have been here for a long time. It has been an overwhelming week. And looking back on it I can say it was a great week!

Double classes are great. Believe it or not they feel like a treat. It’s what has kept me sane this week. The yoga room they have built here for us is in a huge conference tent and it is nice. Spacious so we’re not on top of each other. When we are all in there I sometimes take a moment to just look around me and inhale the moment. 350 people doing balancing stick is really and amazing sight. We are all in lines so the group looks like a perfect yoga army, beautiful!

Rajashree (Ra-djash-ree) teaches the morning classes this week. She is a beautiful person and teaches a phenomenal class. When she enters the room you feel okay, she is a mom and she’s got a lot of kids to take care of for the next 9 weeks.
Rajashree and Bikram were introduced by their guru and got married 25 years ago she was only 19 then. They have a son and a daughter together. There is a lot of emphasis on marriage and relationship in their lectures and little talks. It’s very important to them and that makes me feel save somehow. There is a lot of mutual respect between Bikram and his Rajashree, they balance each other perfectly and you can really feel the love and respect between them. They have so much love that they are able to share it with all of us.

There is a big group of teachers present here that is the core staff for the nine weeks and they are all great. There is no ego and they are truly on top of things. Every time someone is down on their mat in class one of them walks over to check on them, our questions are answered and our eyes will be opened if we doze off during lectures.
Bikram told us we are on this earth to give. The peer teachers are definitely setting an example for us.

Our days are full and till now we’ve had 20 hours nonstop. The alarm is set for 7am and we start with yoga at 8.30am. We all have to be there at 8 because we have to sign in to show we are present. If you don’t show for a class/lecture/class/lecture or you forget to sign in you have to do a ‘make up class’ in the weekend. My goal is to not have that happen.
After morning class we get an hour and a half to shower and have lunch and than have to sign in again for posture clinic. Right now Bikram is still seeing all of us perform half moon.
I did mine on the second day and it went well. Of course I worked hard on it and practiced with my roomy before going on stage.
Bikram’s response: ‘Everybody, that’s the way I want it! Very good’
Needless to say I was pleased with that and relieved it was over.

The four hours lectures at night go by fast. Bikram is a huge barrel of wisdom. He teaches us about people, about life, about choices. It has been a privilege to sit there and listen to him. He goes from really funny to rude to making a very strong point. We laugh with him he keeps it all very fresh. I can only speak for myself but I have not been bored with his lectures for one second.

Bikram’s lectures have ended around midnight and on Wednesday and Thursday he has started Indian movies right after that. We were up till three these nights and then starting with yoga again at 8am the next morning. These movies are 4 hours long and not something you would pick when you are going to the video store. However they all came to a valuable point eventually and I understand he wanted to share them with this group.

Everyone that knows me knows 4 hours of sleep a night is not ideal for me. I’ve managed to get myself out of bed at 7 and really surprised the hell out of myself with my class on Friday morning, it was the best so far. After class I was floating back to my room to shower in a state of complete satisfaction and high. It was awesome! This experience convinced me about the process. We are in good hands and Bikram knows what he is doing.

He is not some ass keeping us up for the fun of it. There is a plan and he has proven for many years it works. We’ve been advised by experienced teachers to ‘stay in the moment’ don’t worry about what’s next or tomorrow or at home. Be present and be in the moment. I’ve reminded myself of that advice a few times already this week and it’s been a helpful tool.

Saturday started with a morning class that ends at 10am after that we’re off for the weekend unless you have got to do a make up class. So here I am in my room trying to update you as best as I can. I’ll do this once a week and will also check my hotmail address on these days.


Bikramisms of week one:
~ Common sense is the sense that’s most uncommon

~ In India you can’t touch a woman. You can burn them but you can’t touch them.

~What the f..k is wrong with this hotel giving us all new towels! I look like a chicken all white fuzzies stuck on my body!

~The conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time. Choose a positive
thought.

~Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.