Well I've made if half way through the first week! I'm trying to just look at that as an acomplishment in itself and not think about how many more classes, lectures and late nights are to come because that all feels a little too daunting. i.e. I am counting the number of classes we have done to date but I can't quite bring myself to add up the number of classes we will do in total over the 9 weeks! Maybe when we're in week 5 and I know I'm safely over the halfway mark.
At the same time I don't want to wish my time here away as if there is one thing that everyone agrees on it is that the 9 weeks will fly be and we will all be back in the real world before we know what has hit us. Certainly to be able to take 9 weeks from our regular lifestyles to go and do something we love is an invaluable gift and opportunity and so I want to try and relish every moment (some obviously more than others).
So last night we were only kept up till midnight doing Posture clinic - early by Bikram's standards. Then it was up and ready for class by 8 a.m. this morning. I certainly did not feel like class at all when the alarm went off, but I have to admit that afterwards I did feel revitalised. A reminder of how well this yoga works.
It also helped that I had my first reasonably strong class since we've been here. Yay! The class was taught by another one of Bikram's first Teachers, Marlee who has such great energy. It helped that the heat and humidity were far more within what felt like a normal range and she was purposely kind to us so that we had energy for our 2nd class later in the day. You can't imagine how much we appreciated that :-)
She called the Half Tortoise Pose / Ardha-Kurmasana her "Thank God" pose. Now I'm sure she means thanking God because we are bowing in the posture, but I think there will be plenty of times when I'm in it and say, "thank God" because it means we're 3/4's of the way through the class. lol
For the first time since I've been here I managed to get my forehead to knee in both sets of standing head to knee and didn't fall out. Always a nice achievement. In fact I felt strong in all the standing postures and wasn't just going through the motions which is all I have managed in the previous classes.
So then the day was spent in posture clinic again. With 430 yogis having to deliver their Half Moon dialogue its going to go for days. We're not even halfway yet, and are going back after dinner tonight at 9:30pm for another session.
Our 5pm class was taken by Waan (sp?) and again it was a great class. By no means easy, but I got through it really well and was able to get into full extension of all the postures again.
He had a wonderful insight about the art of complaining where he said that "complaining is a sign of life" and that as a teacher if there is one thing we can count on its that students will ALWAYS find something to complain about. So I apologise now to all my teachers :-)
I had another strong class that I felt comfortable in (well as comfortable as one can be in a hot room) and I managed to do all postures to the full extent without too much trouble.
So now we're on a dinner break and then its back at 9:30pm for some more dialogue clinic and then a Hindu movie so who knows what time things will finish up tonight? Lets just hope its a short movie!
Thanks for all your messages everyone, and Sean for sending us love and energy from the Gold Coast studio. It means a lot when you're so far from home. Namasate xx
