Day 4: Half Moon Dialogue!

This morning started with our 8:30 class with Rajashree again. She is really beyond great. And, I’m happy to report – I had a seemingly normal, good (if not great, in comparison…) practice! I struggled a little, and took it easy, until Triangle – but then totally got a bolt of lightning strength and breezed through the rest of the class putting forth appropriate effort. At the end, she talked about fear and letting go. As I was about to roll up my mat, the girl next to me just started sobbing while still in her savasana. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it for a long time; after a bit, two others came and rubbed her shoulders and her feet.

The people here are so supportive, and so totally on your side. It’s amazing how we all already know how to support each other, hold each other up, and how to just let someone have their experience. (She later said, “That was so nice, you were just there with me but you still just let me cry…”). She said when Rajashree talked about fear, a big batch of fears surfaced for her and it was overwhelming – fear about training, fear about facing some childhood stuff, fear in general. This training is so intense, borderline insane, but you can see now how no one will escape unchanged. And I think that’s a lot of what we all paid for, and hope for!

After class, I took a quick dip in the pool with Christian, and headed to lunch – where my lap-band disagreed with my food choices for the first time. Ah well, at least I’m not ‘really’ puking like so many people here. The guys in particular seem to be suffering a lot - loads of abdominal cramping, puking, and general illness (Todd said he’s still holding the record for the fullest bucket…). Poor Christian even – made it through the morning class, but couldn’t keep food down all day. He was prohibited from afternoon practice even, which sucked (it did, however, elicit a few cool photos of practice for all of you to see!). By evening though, he was looking and acting more like himself (that is to say, bright-eyed and giving me shit). So, hopefully tomorrow he will be ‘back.’ We’re all working so hard to eat enough, stay hydrated and get enough nutrients. Sometimes though, even with that, your body has other plans…

At 12:30 Posture Clinic I gave my Half Moon dialogue. I said I was from Seattle, and went to Kevin & Kathy's studio, whereupon Bikram talked about a little story regarding Kevin, giving me some time to acclimate to the stage. It went as well as I could’ve hoped! Christian snapped a few shots for me of it (below). My feedback was great, he said, “ Look at her confidence, she’s like, ‘I don’t give a shit what any of you think; you paid me, I’m doing my job. Good job!.” It was funny and kind, and he told the two who went before me to get more of that vibe going (they both did great, just nerves really). Then I jumped in line to do the posture 5 times.

There was a crazy French lady (I use crazy in the kindest regard) who went and was HILARIOUS. She is older, and stern as all hell! She made an error and turned to the audience to say, “I’m not sorry.” Bikram said, “I am afraid of you. I cannot give you any comments.” She’s been practicing for 35 years! At the break, she asked me, “Did you understand all my words?” – Um, hell yeah lady – we are all terrified of you!

Bikram made an Aussie girl cry by forcing her to sing in an effort to help her realize the range of her voice (projection wise, really). She just got really upset, and said, “I don’t know what you want from me.” He kindly helped her through it though, she regrouped and did the dialogue just fine.

Attendance started today. We now have to sign in 5 minutes or sooner before our start, or else have to do an extra 11 a.m. weekend class. Now that sounds fun, eh?!?!?! I will be on time. By the way they present it, I’m guessing I will resent it at some point…

Tonight, at our 9 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. posture clinic (yes, I’m dying to go to bed, but needed to wind down anyhow), Bikram said, “Whatever you go thorugh, it’s totally normal. Huge imbalance here, this is good what is happening to you. You have to experience it. No matter how you feel in class, blackout, nauseous, dizzy, it was 110% normal. Take it easy this week, relax, NO PANIC. This is the best chance of your entire life, this is a turning point. You don’t want to give up on this chance.”

I must have missed jotting down all the funny quotes today, but there will be more to come. My afternoon practice was HARD but ok. I was in the front row, and I actually like the second/third better. It was hotter today – you can tell they are slowly jacking it up…

More soon! Here are pix:
Me after class #4, a good one!; Posture clinic & me doing dialogue, gesticulating (of course); A row of folks, the french lady is on the left - she looks scary, no??; ck's shots from the afternoon class; pix from a dip in the ocean after p.m. class and one of me and my friend Luke after class #5, and him in Pyramid (not a Bikram posture, but how'bout that??); finally, Bikram's talk before our late posture clinic.