Hello Ottawa!

Farewell Beautiful Kelowna!

Goodbye Kelowna!

It has been a while since my last update.  The last week and a half has been a bit of a blur.  I arrived in Kelowna safely and was welcomed home with such love from my little dog Baci.  This immediately made me sooo happy!!  I then set about packing up my condo, organizing things with the movers, car shippers, cable company, etc.   I also tried to get in a few visits with some of my friends in Kelowna.  Thank you, Krista for hosting a little get together with some of my closest friends to say goodbye.  I was already pretty tired from the 9 week training program, so I was in a fog most of the week.  Still, it was good to be home, in my own bed and back with the company of good friends.  Kelowna is such a beautiful city and in the warm, sunny days of June it is absolutely stunning!  It was so hard for me to say goodbye to a place that I love so much and that really feels like home to me.  I have become attached!  I LOVE Kelowna...it is so hard to leave!

Last day in our condo

I am always amazed when life has a way of working things out for me.  I was pretty stressed about moving and flying with Baci.  I was so worried about how he would be on the plane, and adjusting to a new apt, new city, new routine.  I feel so blessed that Courtney Rodd was there to help... like a little angel from heaven!!  Courtney is a Bikram Yoga Teacher from the Kelowna studio has been coming to Ottawa to help teach classes for Claire.  Courtney is also a WestJet Flight Attendant (handy!).   As fate would have it, Courtney was on the same flight to Ottawa and we were able to sit together!!  She was such a blessing to me...keeping my mind off Baci and reassuring me that everything would be fine.  Of course, everything was fine.  Baci made it to Ottawa safe and sound.  No trauma.  Courtney also stayed at Claire's apt and was a delight to be around.  It was so great to have her helping us out.  (Claire is so busy with the studio and trying to help me get settled!)  Her bright, energetic personality and quirky sense of humour were just what Claire and I needed to help buffer the stress of the move.  I was so tired by this point that I didn't have a lot of "buffer" left in me.  

With Claire after my first class

Teaching My First Class
Both Claire and Courtney encouraged me to teach my first class as soon as possible.  I was really resisting this because I was so tired, and because I didn't feel ready yet!  I just didn't feel like myself.  With all packing and moving, I hadn't been studying my dialogue and I was getting worried that I had forgotten it all!!  They both reassured me that I had not forgotten the dialogue but I didn't really believe them.  We did a couple of practice sessions in the studio which really helped me recall the words and get used to being in the room, on the podium.  So, on Tuesday, June 28 at 4:00pm I taught my first ever Bikram Yoga Class!!  Yahoo!!  


It was basically a blur for me.  I remember that it was hard!...which is what I expected.  Talking for 90 minutes is a long time.  It requires so much concentration, energy and lung power!  But, there were also moments of divine intervention/inspiration...when words just came flowing out of my mouth with passion and energy.  I had little flashes of joy at the magic of it.  It felt so so inspiring to see the students working hard and focusing on the yoga.  I was amazed at their beautiful postures.  Really inspiring.  Of course there were also moments when they were looking at me with miserable faces...like "Are you serious?!  You're killing us!   This is hard!"  One of the things about being a new teacher is that "ad-libbing" or making changes during class does not come easily.  I only know how to teach the postures using the dialogue from Bikram.  The problem with that, is that it makes for long, hard postures...and a long, hard class!  (I have to learn to talk faster!)  I could see people were struggling at times...I almost wanted to say "I'm sorry, I know this is too hard, but it the only way I can do it right now!"  Some of them came back to my next class, so I guess they were okay.


I was relieved that Courtney and Claire were right in front of me during the class...giving me cues as to what should come next when I had that "deer in the headlights....OMG I forget what comes next" look on my face.  I said a couple of funny things and I went a little too long...but that is to be expected.  It will take time to get the flow of things.  In fact, Bikram says that it takes 10 years to become a real yoga teacher.  Until then, I think of myself as a teacher in training.  


So now, I am just trying to get myself settled into Ottawa.  I'm still waiting for my car and all of my stuff to arrive.  In the meantime, I continue to teach classes (each one is getting better) and get to know the city a bit better. I am so lucky to have a best friend who cares and supports me so much.  Claire has been kind enough to let me and Baci move in with her...so we already have a place to stay.  Now, I have to get trained at the studio (front desk stuff) and keep studying my dialogue for teaching!!


Well, that's it for today.  Off for a walk with Baci and some study time before I teach the 4:00pm class today.
Namaste

The Front Desk at Bikram Yoga Ottawa

My Name is Colleen. I AM your Yoga Teacher!

I am sitting at the Vancouver Airport waiting for my connecting flight home to Kelowna.  It is hard to believe that nine weeks of Bikram Teacher Training are finally over!  As I sit here, I am reflecting on the experience and trying to think of what I might share.   I know it will take time to process.   To sum up the experience, I would say that Bikram wants his teachers to be an example of "bullet proof, fire proof, wind proof, water proof, sex proof, money proof, emotion proof..." tough yogis.  He is trying to show us how the discipline of yoga can transform a group of "junk bodies, screw loose brains and lost souls" into true human beings.


The final two weeks of training were extremely difficult for me.  I struggled mentally to stay in the process and not fall in to a negative state of mind.  The days got longer and harder...our final week we were getting only 3-5 hours sleep each night, lectures were long and tedious.  Two nights this week, we were up until 4:30am and as usual expected back in the yoga room by 8:00am.   Our last day of training, Bikram kept us up until 2:30am!  What a way to end the training.  I have to admit that I was slipping.  I was getting more and more tired...more and more ready to go home!  It was hard for me to find even one positive thing to say. 


Thursday we were in lecture from 11:30 am until 6:00pm.  Our last yoga class of training finally started at 7:00pm (2 hours late)  As I walked in the hot room exhausted and frustrated...just wanting it all to be over...I heard a voice calling my name.  If she hadn't called my name, I would have walked right past my friend Claire Cameron who came from Ottawa to surprise me!  Oh, such pure joy!  I was so excited to see a familiar, loving face!  I couldn't believe it...my best friend!  A true, best friend.  As I write this, my eyes are watering with tears of appreciation and love....that someone would come so far to support me in my journey...I am so humbled.


I practiced my final yoga class of Teacher Training along side Claire Cameron and my dear roommate Brittany Milove.  They carried me through the 90 min class and literally, lifted me up in full locust (I wish I had a picture of that!)  Such love and support.  The room was a crazy energy of exhaustion, excitement and anticipation.  Everyone so anxious to complete this last class...95 classes in 9 weeks!  But, that was not the end of training.  A quick shower and back in the lecture hall at 10:30pm for Bikram's final lecture that would go until 2:30am.  Right until the very end he would challenge our beliefs, our limitations, our expectations...always pushing us.


GRADUATION DAY!  YAHOO!

Group 8 - Graduation Day

I don't remember much about graduation day.  I woke up so tired I felt like I had a hangover.  I think I went to coffee with Claire and then got ready for the graduation ceremony.  I remember that I felt like crap.  I was bloated, swollen, puffy, spaced out and cranky....not what I was hoping for my graduation pictures.  It was so great to see everyone dressed in beautiful clothes with happy, smiling faces!

It will take some time to process everything I've learned during the 9 weeks of Teacher Training.  I know that already I miss my fellow trainees...Group 8...the best group in Spring 2011 training; my study partner Emma Hicks; my roommate Brittany Milove and my best friends, lecture support group....Jane Ashton and Katrina Cooke.  

Brittany Milove, my roommate

Emma, a true friend...taking care of my hair

Thank you to everyone who sent loving words of encouragement to me over these past nine weeks.  You could not imagine how those emails helped me during so many difficult times.  




As I head home to Kelowna, I begin a new challenge.  I am packing up my life and moving to Ottawa, Ontario to work for my friend Claire at Bikram Yoga Ottawa.  I will teach my first ever, Bikram Yoga Class there next week.  I'll write again...as I start the next chapter of the journey...life as a new Bikram Yoga Teacher.


With love and gratitude....namaste.


Colleen

Goodbye Radisson LAX

Week 8 - Almost there....

My study partner and new friend, Emma.  Coffee and dialogue on Sunday morning.

Before class with Kat and Jane

After a super HOT class

Friday night and class is over!  Smiling, happy faces!

I've just had some technical problems with my blog and lost almost everything I wrote over the weekend.  I now have to get ready for the morning yoga class, so I don't have time to re-write it.  I guess it wasn't meant to be shared.  So, I've just attached a few photos, and the little bit of writing that wasn't lost.  I will write again later in the week if I have a few spare moments.
Namaste 




Excerpt from the blog writing that wasn't lost....
Path of the Soul Destiny Cards

At the last minute before leaving home, I felt inspired to put my Path of the Soul Destiny Cards in my suitcase.  I thought that I may need an uplifting message at some point during the training.  Little did I know at the time, how great the cards would be for not only myself but so many trainees as well.  It started one day during a 15min break midway through posture clinic.  I thought I would quietly do a card reading for my friend Emma as a fun break from the postures.  I didn't think anyone would even notice, but the cards were like a magnet!   People started gathering around to see what they were and one by one people were asking me to do a card reading for them.  Obviously we didn't have a lot of time, so silently throughout the last half of the clinic, I would let people pull a card and then let them read their own message in the booklet.  It was just what everyone needed!  I was so thrilled to see people's faces light up or sometimes a little tear would come to their eyes as a message touched them in a special way.  Almost everyone wanted to write down the message in their journal.  


I have now taken to caring the cards with me every day.  Whenever we have a few spare minutes, I do a card reading for someone nearby.  I usually don't even have mention the cards.  People either come up and ask me, or people will see me doing it for another person and ask if they can sit in.  It has been a great way to meet so many wonderful people here.  What is particularly interesting, is that although there are 44 cards in the deck, people pick the same 4 or 5 cards over and over again.  It is as though we all need to hear a similar message of encouragement.  


As you can imagine, when you live in such close proximity to so many people for nine weeks...sharing the ups and downs...everyone missing their families back home... we become close in a very short period of time.  There is lots of love here!  I feel blessed to have met so many wonderful people from around the world.  We now how friends and a place to work or just visit worldwide.  So exciting!  


I am so happy to be starting the last week of training.  Only four more days of classes and lectures!!  Graduation is on Friday!  Yahooo!

Group 8 out for dinner.  I think we had the BEST group at Teacher Training!

Week 7 - Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness

Waiting for Posture Clinic to Start...

This week we wrapped up the last of our Posture/Dialogue Clinics.  We've all worked hard to memorize each of the 26 postures and have been given some really great feedback on our teaching style.  Everyone improved so much over the past month.  It is really inspiring to see people struggle -  pushing themselves outside their comfort zone to be the best possible teacher.  In posture clinics, we focus on one posture at a time.  Now we have just 2 weeks to work on putting them all together before we teach our first class!   Wow, it still seems a bit scary to think that in only a few weeks, I'll be standing up in front of a class and leading them through 90 minutes of Bikram Hot Yoga!!

Wrapping up the posture clinics this week, you could feel a sense of relief and lightness in the groups.  Like all things here, though...while one thing gets better, something else gets a lot harder.  This week, Bikram was back lecturing, which means late, later and super late nights!  And, longer, harder yoga classes!!  Thursday we were up until 4:30am and then back in the hot yoga room at 8:00am...lecture/clinic all day and then another incredibly tough, hot class at 5:00pm - the toughest class so far!!   I feel proud that I just stayed in the room the whole 2 hours.  It was that hot and hard.  For most of us, Friday was the most challenging day of training so far. 

Bollywood Night!

Movie night again this week.  Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.   I'm not sure what it is about these Bollywood movies, but I LOVE them!  So despite the late night, I was able to watch the whole movie (all 3+hrs) without falling asleep.   Bikram wants us to understand a bit about the culture in India.  In this particular movie, he wanted us to learn about the family values in India  - about the tradition of marriage, role of parents, respect for elders, and the strong bond among generations.  Bikram often comments that we do not know how to take care of our elders...that we abandon them in "homes" without respect.   This movie was a story of a family torn apart and reunited again.  It shows the love of parents for their children and in return, love of children toward their parents and for the family unit.  Love, dedication and forgiveness.

Self-Realization Fellowship Centre

For me, the highlight of the week was our trip to the Paramahansa Yoganada's Self-Realization Fellowhship Center.  (http://www.yogananda-srf.org)  It is such a beautiful, peaceful place.  A much needed retreat from the training.

View of the temple

Paramahansa Yoganada was the older brother  of Bishnu Ghosh (Bikram's Guru), so this centre is part of the Bikram Yoga lineage.  It was interesting to see the spiritual side of Bikram yoga.  In a typical Bikram class, a student would not have exposure to spiritual teaching or the broader yoga philosophy.   We are so lucky to have this opportunity here in LA.  The centre is a very special place.  It embraces all religions and shows the oneness and harmony of Christianity and Yoga...of East and West.  The Self-Realization Fellowship offers teaching in meditation, retreats, inspirational services and individual counselling from monks & nuns.  There are over 500 temples, retreats and meditation centres around the worldwide.

We are now on the home stretch.  Just two more weeks of training.  Every week here brings on a new challenge and there are always many surprises, opportunities for self analysis and growth.  I expect this week to bring on the heat - classes will likely get a lot tougher (although that is hard to imagine).  At the same time, friendships are growing and bonds between us all are growing.   Everyone has encountered a personal challenge whether it be physical, emotional, mental or spiritual.  Whatever the crisis, we support each other and help each other make it through another day.  Just like the movie, life here at training is "Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness." 

Namaste,

Colleen