Day 37: Week 6 Begins!

Happy, er Monday everyone.

I hesitate to put this in print, but this morning I woke up with a wicked sore throat - I felt it coming on Saturday night, Sunday it was a little itchy - but today was that kinda sore throat where it feels like a ball of fire is lodged in there. I slammed a bunch of Vitamin C Sunday and today, and am trying not to panic/get too bummed out about it.

To that end, I wasn't terribly psyched to go to yoga, in fact, I was a little sad. Or mad. Or something. Christian said to me after a dead silent morning, "Jenn, who you pissed at this morning?" I said, "Huh?" and he turned around one of my favorite phrases on me, "Um, I have met you before..." Gosh. I didn't realize it was that palpable! Apparently, I'm not practicing non-attachment when it comes to feeling good and being healthy: Clearly, I'm attached to being in good health. So I went to yoga, listened to my iPod on my mat before class and cried for a few minutes. I had a fairly good "takin' it easy" kinda class, and took a nice, long, rejuvenating savasana, and felt much better afterwards.

Today our proctor for posture clinic was this fellow Mark. He has opened 7 studios in his time, sold off 5, and is just really down-to-earth, knowledgable and friendly. He gave a handful of wisdom nuggets throughout the time today:
"This training is designed to steal your peace and help you recognize and break your patterns. You don't get to know what's coming next....Bikram does everything to steal your peace, you don't get much of a pattern here at all."

"When Bikram says, "Kill Yourself" in class, he means the little "s" 'self' - what happens when you work hard and 'kill yourself' is that you empower yourself - big "s" self."

My favorite, which was said in reference to aiming for perfect dialogue; but I think it applies nicely to practicing your asanas and to life in general:

"Never give up the the intention; but always let go of the moment."

We got out a few minutes early to greet Rajashree, who was returning for the first time since Week 1. She arrived at 4:15 and taught our 5:00 class. Her classes are always so great, and I had a really, really good one (could be the comparison to the morning, but...it was good). She was funny, checking to see if certain people are still here ("where are my babies, the young ones?" - oh there you are! good, you still here; "where is the lady who had to be by the fan in the front? Oh, there you are! see, no fan needed!" - and this was Bernadette, the older French lady who packs a punch - she replied, "Oh, no, I love zee'fan!).

I ate some tuna salad, crackers and a piece of cheese, talked with Jill and just chilled out. We then had lecture with Bikram which mercifully only lasted until 11 p.m., assuming Rajashree helped us out. She is slated to lecture tomorrow on the health benefits of each posture, which we are all really excited for! She does not want a bunch of exhausted, sleepy students, so I'm guessing she put her foot down on our behalf. Amen, Raj! I'm hitting the hay early in an effort to beat my cold before it comes full force!

p.s. Oh, today, two of my 'avid readers' Craig & Molly, arrived - they snagged me at the 'welcome back Raj' reception and said hello! It's funny because I forget all of you who read this kinda 'know' me already - and I don't know anything much about you! It must be how movie stars feel, I mean really, I'm not that far off from celebrity now, am I?? (sooooo kidding ;)
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Class #54; Self-portrait of me studying dialogue; welcoming back Rajashree; Class #55! and Bikram lecturing up above.