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