Over The Moon

Today we finally finished Half Moon presentations. And, as my title indicates, we are, indeed "over the moon" . . I think I can speak for everyone when I say that if I had heard "Everybody together, feet together at the line . . heels and toes touching each other . . arms over your head sideways, palms together . . . " one more time I was going to scream. Especially because, although at one point we were cruising along quite nicely, the final presentations were a bit rocky and painful to listen to, which is most likely precisely why those individuals opted not to go until the end. On the other hand, they did have nearly two full weeks to prepare . . just sayin'. Regardless, we are done and ready and eager to move on to the rest of the dialogue in our posture clinics. This is when all 430 of us are broken down into 20 groups and assigned to a room where we will quickly and intensively learn and present the remaining 25 postures. This is also the point in which the pace picks up a bit and the pressure is on to learn the dialogue and move onto the next posture. I'm pretty psyched about the thought of not having to endure 3+ hours of Half Moon while sitting in chairs that are not conducive to any semblance of comfort whatsoever. Of course, if it were only posture clinics that we were looking forward to then it would be just too easy. Next week we will also be starting our Anatomy lectures and "homework" with Dr. P. This is where we will delve deeper into our study of this practice and learn how each pose contributes to the functioning of different organs in the body. This is a valuable part of the training and important knowledge for us to have as teachers so I recognize its significance; however, I really just want to focus on posture clinics right now and get to know my group. It is in our groups that real friendships and bonds are formed, which isn't to say that genuine friendships have not been established up to this point, but your group becomes your immediate family at this training and the people in it are those that we will rely on the most for support.
On another note . . the heat is back. This statement requires some clarification, I'm sure, since you, as my reader, are operating under the notion that I am at a hot yoga teacher training. Well for several days the temperature in the room dipped to far below the acceptable point for Bikram Yoga. The objective behind the heat is to allow one's muscles to stretch into postures with more ease, to make one's body more agile, and to prevent injury. Many, many trainees were complaining about tight hamstrings and other pain due to the lack of the heat. But, alas, that problem has been solved and the heat is back. This makes for a more intense class and far less injuries so we are happy yogis once again. Rumor has it the heat is back up to around the 130 mark but that is purely hearsay. My personal thermometer would put it somewhere around 110-115 depending on where you are in the room. It feels comparable to my home studio, which is very hot. The only difference is that we don't get the periodic breath of fresh air that is provided by most teachers in New York throughout class by opening doors and/or windows. That was a little tough to deal with in the beginning for me since I expect and have grown quite accustomed to the door or window being opened during Triangle or before Camel . .but this training is all about leaving your expectations behind and accepting circumstances as they truly are, whether it’s about the heat, the length of class (90 minutes is not the norm at training), the teacher, and our schedule. Speaking of which, we had one super late night this week. Bikram had us watch a Bollywood movie with him until 3:30 a.m. but the following night we were in bed by 12:30 a.m. so I really can't complain. We shall see what tonight brings . . .