Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Week Eight: 'Trust the Process'




Throughout the past 8 weeks we have been bombarded with a plethora of information covering everything from Karma Yoga to fascia to the name for the lateral curvature of the spine (scoliosis, btw). We have learned about the 5 sections of the spine, about niyamas and yamas (do's and don'ts, fyi), and about how to handle difficult students in the yoga room. We have heard lectues on challenges encountered when opening your own studio, on the importance of locking one's knee and on dorsiflexion of the foot. We have performed the '26 and 2' almost 90 times and attended numerous posture clinics with our beloved groups. We have endured countless late nights/early mornings watching Bollywood films and have pressed snooze on our alarms time and time again. We have spent our Saturdays, perhaps, taking the makeup class or, perhaps, riding the Bikram shuttle to Trader Joe's for groceries which we would later strategically squeeze into our miniature refrigerators. We have filled and re-filled our water bottles in the bathtub, draped our washed yoga "costume" over furniture in our rooms and waited patiently in the long line for coffee or tea before a night lecture. A lot has happened over the previous 56 days and consistently, through it all, we have been told to "Trust the Process". The significance of this phrase cannot be underestimated as it defines how we should react, or not react, to the circumstances that arise throughout TT. According to this phrase, we should breathe, relax, not dwell or panic and simply "Trust the Process" that has been proven successful at the 38 previous BYTT's (at least this is my interpretation). Initially, I doubted the "process' and disagreed with many of its elements (ie, sleep deprivation). However, I have realized that everything here has a purpose and a place in the training. We leave our family and friends, travel from our respective homes to live in a small hotel room with, usually, a total stranger for 9 weeks. We take 11 classes per week in a room typically heated to a temperature well above the "standard" for Bikram yoga and which often lasts well over the usual 90 minutes. We are kept awake until 2, 3, 4 a.m., deprived of sleep that is normally critical to our performance in the yoga room. We attend lecture after lecture, participate in posture clinic after posture clinic, and memorize approximately 40 pages of copywrighted text (aka "The Dialogue") in an extremely short amount of time. We are allotted very limited free time to communicate with the outside world. We are obligated to follow this schedule, to obey the rules, including no alcohol consumption for the duration and "no touchy touchy, no kissy kissy and no fucky fucky", and to sign in for every class and lecture or take a makeup class. And through it all we are told to "Trust the Process", to believe that everything we are going through will make us strong, compassionate and effective Bikram Yoga teachers in the end. Each element of the training, each requirement, and each rule plays an integral role in the "process", although it may take 9 weeks (or more) to recognize this. Essentially, we are broken down and have to maintain a demanding schedule and practice twice daily in this state. In the process, we rely on the people around us who were mere strangers just weeks before for support and encouragement as we are all going through the same thing and encountering the same challenges. The objective behind all of this is to instill in us the capacity to empathize with and demonstrate compassion for our students who come to us with "junk bodies, screw loose brains and lost souls". We will, presumably, be capable of understanding the difficulties confronted by our students in class, whether they have trouble kicking out in standing head to knee or can barely grab their heels in padahastasana, because we have been there. This compassion is extended to the various circumstances with which our students are dealing - fatigue, relationship troubles, problems at the office or a myriad of other personal challenges. We can empathize because we have taken class when exhausted, cranky, sore, injured, sick, missing our home and families, and, basically, broken. The late nights serve to allow us to spend more time with our guru, Bikram, and to create memories with our fellow trainees, as well as simply create fatigue with which we have to perform and practice with the following days. The constant signing in and demanding schedule serves to train us to be punctual so that when we are teachers we appreciate the importance of arriving on time, even if we are teaching the 5:30 a.m. class. I do recognize the significance of the various elements of the process and I am gaining trust for it . . . I think once I am teaching and realize that I do, indeed, know the dialogue then I will truly "Trust the Process" . . .

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