Week 1 – Check, Check one…two…three… Hey boss lock the knee!

Week one has been wonderful. In a nutshell, it has been a warm up and holding pattern. To me, it feels like they are getting our minds and bodies strong, preparing us for what is coming in the following eight weeks. There are things I’m doing in week one that I have never been able to do in my regular practice and I have no explanation for it. I can stretch further in stretching pose, hold longer in standing head to knee, go higher in cobra pose. That is…until Friday night. That was the official end of week one and it was remarkable to say the least. I’ve heard talk of the room temperature being way up there, but I won’t speculate. I will say this; when I got there the windows were steamed up and there was a huge smiley face, the floor was so hot it was burning my feet and felt like hot sand, it was probably the toughest class I’ve ever had. My heart was beating so hard in the floor series it was making ripples in my little lake of sweat. Jim Kallett’s class on Thursday night was pretty intense as well. The important thing is we all survived and tried our best.

I’m learning that passing out, getting dizzy to the point where you can’t move, and cramping has everything to do with hydration, replacing electrolytes, salt, sugar, and eating well. We’re getting lots of counsel on this from Bikram, Rajashree, the staff, and the nurse. I’m lucky to have a blender and electric teapot. I use a green powder full of good stuff called Green Vibrance. I drink two shakes a day. I mix it with soy milk, blueberry yogurt, a banana, honey, and ice. It’s really nice as breakfast and after class. This combined with the vegan multi vitamins I take and E3Live provide a good base. I make sure I’m dinking a ton of water and put elete (electrolytes) with lemon in my water. One of the foods we were told is really good for replenishment is dill pickles. I’m eating them like crazy. My roommate turned me onto avocado and honey. I’m also eating whatever I want when I want. I have had an uncontrollable appetite, I’m guessing a lot of it has to do with staying up until the wee hours of the morning and coming back hungry. I usually eat vegetarian with some fish. Since I’ve been here I’ve had a Reuben sandwich, cobb salad, and eggs with sausage. The latter made my stomach revolt, so I’m learning that everything is good in moderation (with the exception of locking the knee).

I got up and performed half moon posture for Bikram and 300 other fellow yogis/yoginis. I was pretty nervous, very nervous actually. I have to say, the staff has been great at calming us down. The general vibe is, if there were any place you would want to fall flat on your face, this is it. Jim Kallett gave a great example from his teacher training where a person in his group would nail the dialogue then get up to present and nothing would come out. At the end of training (it used to be 11 weeks) eight students were picked to teach class. This person was one of them and turned out to be a great teacher. What I noticed is that the focus was more on a person’s personality, how they interacted with the people doing the posture, and how much they reached out to them. I did OK. I was going along well enough and about 1/3 of the way through I suddenly froze and forgot what was next. My brain felt weird, it was almost like the feeling you get right before you go under for surgery. I snapped out of it and came back strong for the rest of the dialogue. Bikram said it was good and he knows I’ll do better as I go through the other postures because I’ll be paying attention to people and what they’re doing. I have to say the most incredible thing about Half Moon is listening to all the different people and styles. Especially those people who are from other countries or who have never spoken a word of English. Half Moon has to be presented in English, no matter where you're from. Birkam asked several people to say it in their mother tongue. We heard it in Hebrew, French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Thai, Italian, and Russian. It was awesome!

Spiritually there is way too much I’ve learned to write here and also to interpret. There are a few things I really want to share.

1. There are two types of people, those who think about emotion and those who feel emotion. The people who think often come off cold and distant, those who feel are overly emotional and tender. Thinkers do well in the strength postures, while feelers do well in the flexible postures. When practicing thinkers should focus on improving their flexibility, while feelers should practice their strength postures so they can see how strong they are. The end result is to have a balance between both.
2. In order to have balance in your life and truly be able to love the mind has to connect with the heart. As far as distance is concerned, it’s a matter of six inches between the brain and heart, so often it takes us six million miles to get there.
3. Whenever we want to quit and walk out it’s not really who we are, it’s the mind, it’s a tiny little thought. How can a tiny little thought encompass who we are? How can it inform us of who we are? We’re all part of something greater and divine that cannot be described in a single thought. Often times these thoughts disappear, they don’t exist, they aren’t real.

Everyone loves to hear some of Bikram’s off the wall quotes. I’ve found a lot more in the philosophical things he’s said, though he’s had me cracking up on more than one occasion. Once it was in cobra and I had to come out of the pose because I was laughing so hard. The story goes like this:

During half moon posture clinic a woman from Idaho gets up to present. Bikram asks here the largest potato she’s ever grown. She proceeds to tell him about russet potatoes. He says, “I don’t eat a lot of veggies and fruit, but I love potatoes. I eat chicken and potato, salmon and potato, everything with potato. No potato no Bikram.” There is a posture called cobra where you lie on your stomach with your hands to your side and elbows at a 90 degree angle. Using your lower back muscles you then lift your upper body off the floor while looking up at the ceiling. That day in class during cobra he says, “Where is the potato lady? Miss potato! Get your potatoes off the floor!” It was classic.

There are two things he’s said more than once that I really like.

“You have nothing to lose. Ask me why. (Why?) Because you never had anything to begin with.”

“Having something doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know how to use it.”

“Want to know how to be successful in life? Ask me how. (How?) Lock the knee.”

I used to wonder why there has been so much emphasis on locking the knee. I always looked at it from a physical aspect until I got here. Now it’s my mantra and it only gets better from there.

I hope to have more pictures next time. My camera isn’t too great when it comes to taking pictures where people are moving. And Bikram knows how to move. He danced for us one night and he has some snazzy dance steps. Week 2 begins and I’m off to bed to prepare. Peace everyone!