Week 5 Begins

It's so great to get comments from my pals at the Bikram Yoga Bend studio!! Thanks so much guys for your encouragement and I want you to know how much it does for my spirits to hear from you. BYB has the best people on the planet practicing yoga together! Oh, and to Christen, I have solved my phone dilemma with Skype. It is awesome!

Week 4 was a tough one. Lots of highs and lows. Monday, Bikram stormed out of the room right before Camel posture. He said we were lazy and worthless and he didn't want to waste his time anymore (sparing you the expletives). That night he came to lecture and told us that one of the teachers told him that the room is ridiculously humid and had no air. Well, duh, it's been like that for 4 weeks. No wonder people are still passing out and being carried out of class. But thank goodness she told him that because he realized that the air in that room is unbearable since this is the rainy season in Acapulco (humid as hell) and also the studio is in a basement. Honestly there is no air in there. Well, no oxygen. You are breathing carbon dioxide and that's it. He said he had called the engineers that designed the system and they were flying in that night. Well, OK, Bikram exaggerates sometimes. I couldn't picture a bunch of engineers stopping their lives and flying to Mexico to fix a system that has long since been paid for. Being in the business world for nearly 30 years teaches you that that ain't happenin'! But at any rate, thank you Marlin (I hope I'm spelling it right)! She is the teacher from headquarters who told Bikram that she had a hard class because of all the air problems.
She is one of his most senior teachers so he listens to her. OK, so now we have fans all over the room and they open the doors. Now it's like a normal studio and breathing is an option. I thought it was really good that Bikram listened to her and immediately did something about the situation. He never told us that we WEREN'T lazy slobs but at least he took care of the problem!
He taught class again on Thursday evening and he was screaming at us and driving us like I've never been driven before. I had a GREAT class and worked harder than I thought possible. His tough love approach is pretty interesting. Unfortunately, last night he taught again and I had the worst class yet. I think I didn't have enough sugar in my system and I had low blood pressure. I nearly passed out in Triangle, but I'll tell you why I didn't. He told us that he was sick and tired of us lazy, worthless pieces of *!*! ~ "I HATE LAZY PEOPLE!!" he keeps saying. Anyway, he wanted to make a deal with us. If no one left the room and no one sat out a posture we could have the night off!! Let me tell you THAT is some motivation. I wouldn't have quit unless I blacked out. I did every posture (pathetically) and got through the class. Each and every person in there did the same thing. Nobody wanted to be responsible for others losing their night off! I think he proved his point.
As for my posture clinics.........I have been to the depths and to the mountaintop! The first two postures that I presented after learning to find my "loud voice" were a disaster. I was talking loudly but because of that I was forgetting the dialogue. It's so hard to concentrate on everything at once. I was getting feedback like, "Are you having trouble memorizing the dialogue?" Damn, that made me mad because I know the dialogue like the back of my hand. I just said that I will practice more and left it at that. Actually, I did start doing the dialogue with groups of trainees and it helped me on future postures. It's really funny around here because you see yoga trainees everywhere, divided up into groups and practicing the dialogue with 3 or 4 trainees doing the postures. I'm sure that new hotel guests think they've landed in the land of crazy people.
Anyway, when I got to Balancing Stick I found my stride. Of course, Balancing Stick is a posture where you can really blow it out. "Body down, leg up, come down, leg up", and of course at the end "Stretch and stretch and stretch and stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch!!!!"
I got good reviews and felt 100% better. Yesterday was Standing Separate Leg Stretching (one of my favorite postures) and when I finished the teacher said she would take a class from me anytime. What a great feeling to get such positive feedback. One thing I have learned is that you need to get up and JUST DO your dialogue. If you wait until tons of people have gone before you, it just makes you more and more nervous. Monday we are going to do Triangle and that pose is so long it's unbelievable. It's going to be a tough one. If my feedback is not as good as the past two, I'm not going to worry about it. Just take what they say and work on it. I have found that what they tell you is really good, "spot on" information. These guys know what they're doing.
I have to say a few words about the people here. I am the oldest person in the training, boo hoo!! :( Well, I'm kidding actually. It's kind of cool to be the oldest because I feel like I can be an inspiration for all the young women. I think it's my responsibility to be an example for them, showing them that can keep pushing themselves and growing throughout their lives. "I'm too old" is NO EXCUSE. Jim, from San Diego, one of the many great teachers here, says, "If you argue your limitations, you'll win the argument every time and you'll always have your limitations." Emmy is in her 80s and could be my mother but she is stronger than most of the 30 year olds. Hell, maybe even 20 year olds!
Back to my train of thought... there are at least a dozen of us girls over 50 and they have become my best friends. We are all like minded and fit and really have no concept of how old we actually are!
I hope to be friends with them from here on out.
I'm not saying that only the older women are cool, because I've met so many young people of both genders who are amazing. It's just that common denominator of the yoga that brings us closer. Well, also being in the torture chamber for 9 weeks together. That too.
Well, gotta go to Wally World (sorry, there's no choice here) for supplies and then it's relaxing, reinforcing Triangle in my mind, room service, many hours of sleep and looking forward to happy Sunday.