How Was Teacher Training You Ask?! Great!

Wow, my last post was June 6th! Eeeek! I was almost done with training then and I think training took it all out of me..I lost my energy to blog. I've been back for a few weeks now and honestly blogging has floated through my mind a few times and each time I have thought it was a monumental task. Not sure why, could be because teaching yoga isn't natural and free flowing like my work I did for the last 11 years so it takes more energy to do it well, leaving just about enough energy to brush Ginger (my cat) and make a smoothie.

Good news?! I'm a Bikram Yoga Teacher!!! I made it! Since I've been back, everyone I meet asks, "how was it?" My only response is "it was great! I loved it!" This usually is met with a bit of a surprised look. Bikram Yoga Teacher Training is hard, long and involves things that are challenging, sometimes not fun and often what you don't really want to be doing. So why did I love it? I've pondered this question and I've decided it was because I went with little to no expectation and the only expectation I did have was WAY hard and more mentally challenging than it was. Whatever we were told to do, that is what we did, we never had time to think about it.

 I am the type of person that needs to feel in control, always have a schedule, plan out my day, week, month. I don't like to leave things to chance so I think in my head of plan A, B and C, just in case. I also don't like doing things I'm not good at or that I just plain don't like so this training could have been a daily meltdown for me. And I was expecting it.

I've left Texas 3 other times for extended times (like this training, 9 weeks) and all three times I was miserable and wanted to come home. I was younger then and more stubborn, I'm glad to see I've grown up a bit! :) But I was worried I would fall into the same patterns and not enjoy or absorb the experience while it was happening.

Instead, I had a great time! It was hard, don't get me wrong. And I had to do a lot of things I didn't really want to do, I was challenged physically in class and mentally in lectures and clinics but each moment, each experience was an opportunity to change myself, to look inside myself and work on me. It was awesome. I felt like I was really able to let go and not stress, not feel the need to control my environment and not allow the little things to make me go completely postal.

I think the best compliment I received was from a teacher at my studio that came out to visit and she said I looked so happy, happier than she had ever seen me. That was awesome.

So I'm back in the Big D, Dallas, and teaching yoga at Bikram Yoga Dallas. Each day is a new day to work on myself and help others work on themselves. Always a work in progress, but what great work it is!

Namaste

Made it through week 7, still smiling...

Bikram Yoga Teacher Training has BEGUN! (It started 7 weeks ago but now, the heat is ON.) Temperatures in Las Vegas were in the 90's at the beginning of the week but by the end, the temperature was in the 100's and it was H-O-T in the yoga room! Now THAT is how we like it! (I'm secretly happy it hasn't been like this the whole time, I think I might have died...although, they say we aren't lucky enough to die in the yoga room so I suppose I would have just suffered mercifully.) It was a short week because of Memorial Day but that didn't stop Bikram from sharing his wisdom and favorite movies well into the night; we were saved by a technical issue one night. Our yoga classes this week rocked, literally.

 I do hot yoga right? Ok, so that is suppose to mean I LIKE a hot room, right? Wrong. I hate being hot and I hate sweating. So why do I subject myself to heat and sweat for 90 minutes twice a day? Because I like to suffer for 90 minutes rather than 90 years...oh, and because it feels so great to walk out of the room, sweaty and tired, the air, no matter the temperature feels cool and refreshing. It doesn't matter how tired or exhausted I am when I start, I feel alive and energized at the end. That is pretty much how this week went. Was exhausted most of the week, physically and mentally. Walked into the yoga room and whoosh, a blast of hot, steamy air hit me in the face...every class, every day, twice a day. WOW! HOT! The misters were claimed well before class started, what was left was just hot, not that being under a mister is that much better but any little bit helps when you think you might pass out.

So I'm tired from yoga twice a day, posture clinic, lecture and movies...and here comes a power house teacher from Texas kicking our butts in yoga class, in a HOT yoga class. Wow. Lisa Ingle rocked out the yoga room with a fantastic class this week. She gave us exactly what we needed, a tough, but good, very good class. She played Bob Marley after the last savasana and everyone got up and started dancing, it was so great. My roommate and I even got up and danced around. A great ending to a wonderful class.

Wednesday I discovered ice. I mean, I know what ice is, I don't live in the dark ages. I noticed though several people were bringing in ice in little baggies. After a really hot class where I secretly wanted to bad things to happen to everyone I saw enjoying their ice in class, I decided I would try it too. I took ice in to two classes last week. Oh my gosh, how nice! You can do lots of things with it too, put some under your towel, lay on it like a pillow, suck on the ice through a posture, let ice roll off of you in savasana, stick ice in your bra top, etc. Believe me, I found many ways to enjoy the ice and distract myself and believe me, it is a distraction! I don't recommend it. It is nice in the short term but long term, you can't concentrate on the yoga really at all because your brain is so fixated on the darn ice and how you can get another piece without the teacher seeing. So the moral is, suffer the proper way, receive the proper benefit. "99% right is 100% wrong" ~ Bikram

And speaking of Bikram, how great is it he loves to share is movies with us? Uh, it is super great! (yea, that's the right answer.) One night we were in the middle of several episodes of Mahabharata and all the sudden the screen went blank. The bulb burnt out in the projector! LOL Now if that isn't a sign I don't know what is. So funny. Poor Bikram, poor us. We had to go to bed. LOL Not to worry, he caught us up on everything the next time.

Can't believe it's almost over, just two more weeks. I have almost made it. Amazing. So excited for the new possibilities life has to offer. 

Best quote is posture clinic:
Teacher to student after delivering dialog. "how is your breathing?"
Student "Shocking"

When all else fails, just roll with it.

 Joseph and me before yoga class

Amazing, It's already week 7 of my Bikram Yoga Training! I can't believe it, time has really flown by. I started week 6 feeling sore and my sciatica was really getting to me but after rolling my butt on the floor and on the foam roller, I managed to somewhat fix my sciatic issues. Bikram was here the first part of the week, we had lectures on fascia best of all, Joseph Encinia was here! Plus, Bikram gave us a nice surprise and gave us Monday off!

Have you ever tried to fix a problem without knowing really where the problem is? It's the hunt and peck method I think, just trying different fixes until something works. That was me with my sciatic nerve issues. Our anatomy teacher had convinced me, not because he told me specifically but because I deduced from his lectures, my sciatic nerve was pressed against a gluteus muscle and THAT was what was causing the nerve to express pain. Fine I thought, I'll foam roll my butt. Which I did, with not much success. Then on day, I think it was Monday after class, I started rolling my butt on the floor. It looks a little funny but us very effective. I could totally feel the knots in my muscles. It sounds weird but I had knots in my butt! So, I rolled around for a bit in the hot room and felt a noticeable difference in my glutes. Not much difference in my sciatic nerve. So I foam rolled more and rolled a little farther down, kind of where my "cheek" meets the back of the thigh. OH MY GOSH! Man, did THAT hurt! AH HA! Now we are talking...So I rolled around on that area for a bit and wow, I could feel the spot where I "think" I twisted something in November, when all my issues started. Long story short, I am foam rolling every day and this is the first week I have been able to actually lock out my knees in Hands to Feet and Standing Head to Knee without pain in my glutes and leg. YEA! Love the foam roller.

Now after I fixed one part of my sciatic nerve issue, I found another. Only after sitting in lecture for hmm...4 plus hours did I find an annoying, shooting pain in the side hip area. Now because I like to self diagnose, I quickly decided I had alleviated one knotted muscle but hadn't fixed the other so now instead of pain in one area, it was now showing up on the other side. So frustrating! I squirmed around in my chair as long as I could but ultimately decided I had to get up, even if it was Bikram lecturing, I just couldn't take it anymore. I finally got up and walked around outside for a minute.

Enough about my sciatica. Who cares about that anyway? LOL Besides, Joseph Encinia was in town, that is WAY more important than my health issues. It was so exciting, I saw a guy that looked like Joseph walking down towards the tent with Dom, as I got closer I realized it WAS Joseph! It is so awesome to see people at training that are from Dallas, it brings a little bit of home to the yoga bubble. Even though Joseph hasn't been in Dallas for a few years now, we all still think of him as part of the Dallas studio.

Joseph taught one of our yoga classes, he was awesome of course. His energy and passion for Bikram Yoga and life in general radiates from him in every possible way. You can't help but be inspired to be more, try harder, give more. Joseph was the first person in Dallas to suggest I should come to teacher training, even before he was a teacher himself. I didn't believe then that I could possible do this training. To have him here watching me go through training is one of the greatest feelings.

Bikram also had Joseph come up and demonstrate his winning competition routine, in jeans no less! Here are some of his postures.

 Standing Head to Knee, no hands

 Standing Bow Pulling Pose

 Peacock Pose

 Scorpion Pose

He left today for India, he going to teaching for Bikram at a studio in Mumbai. I was tearing up as I gave him one last hug today before class.

Human Lota Should be Expected in Bikram Yoga

Onzie Bandeau Top and Shorts

Earlier this week I felt like the human lota, perhaps appropriate since lota in India refers to a "small vessle, usually used to carry water or milk." My dad has one, it's a magic trick. I've never seen a real lota, only those in magic acts, though I suspect they are similar in design. My dad's magical lota usually holds water that gets put into a glass, then later in the show, he dumps more water into a glass, completely emptying the lota. Later, he pours more water from the lota into a glass and this goes on and on throughout the act. It's quite funny. It isn't quite as funny when you ARE the lota, but it is still kind of funny, especially when THAT is what you are thinking about in class when you are suppose to be focused on yoga.

I got this great gift from Onzie, a bandeau top and yoga shorts. I'm not typically a fan of bandeau tops, mostly because of two reasons, one, they fall down on me (not a lot there to hold it up) and two, if it doesn't fall then it slowly inches down from the top and up from the bottom so you end up with this tiny strip across your chest that looks like a distant cousin of the original bandeau. So when I got the bandeau I wasn't sure I was going to like it but lots of people are wearing them here and no one seems to mind if the tops end up looking like strips of ribbon so I thought I would give it a shot.

Wow, I love it! It doesn't slip at all, it has a lining in it that "grips" so it doesn't slip or slip and it stays the same size as when it started! I noticed when I was wearing it I tugged on it a few times out of habit but it wasn't really moving. Loved it so much I bought two more. And the shorts? Those are great too, simply, short yoga shorts that are a great lightweight fabric. Both wash well too.

On to the lota. So I am in my new bandeau top and shorts and I have a pretty good sweat going on. We step to the left of our mats to do Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose and as I go down, sweat slowly streamed out the top, middle part of the bandeau! lol (where my cleavage is) I'm suppose to be looking at the floor at this point but I'm busy watching the sweat stream out of my top onto the floor. Then it stops, like it has drained out all it can.

So we do the second set and the same thing happens, I bend down and sweat starts to slowly stream out of my top in a nice line, like I am the darn "vessle" and my top is the spout where it comes out! I'm the human lota! I laughed quietly to myself for the next few postures. I've been the Human Pin Cushion (magic trick) before but the Human Lota is new ground!