Flower petals blooming

We’ve just finished the third week of posture clinics. This has been such an inspiring experience.

As teachers-in-training we all have challenges to overcome. Sometimes memorisation, sometimes performance related.  But with just four postures left to ‘deliver’ – the transformations are amazing.  We are witnessing each other find our voices, develop style and grow more confident.

Group 14 also knows how to have fun.

Along the way there have been some interesting homework assignments.  We’ve seen a range of character performances, crazy distractions from ‘naughty cow’ students and even Half Tortoise delivered as a rap. Nice work Fran.



It hasn’t been all beer and skittles. We’ve had several days of ‘double’ posture clinics in the afternoon and night and at times some students have delivered two, even three postures in a day. The homework assignments have been challenging taking people well outside their comfort zone – (wait, remind me again, what is that?) – but the words of Jon Burras who lectured us this week ring true; “commit to your limitations and you get to keep them.”



Group 14



I find the beauty of this experience is that on the hardest days, when you feel most exhausted physically and mentally – something unexpected happens to lift your spirit and help you go on. The spontaneous dance party before posture clinic on Thursday night is a memory I will always carry with me. It was just what I needed.

After a long, tiring week “the DJ got us falling in love again.”

“Did you miss me? Bullshit!”

Week four – you go down!

This week we finished our anatomy lectures.  In the process of studying for the exam tomorrow, I have pulled out some interesting facts:

·    Fingerprints develop 6-8 weeks before birth

·    Fingernails grow 4 times faster than toenails

·    We lose 500 million dead skin cells daily due to ordinary wear and tear (this makes up 95% of household dust!)

·    We have 3-4 million sweat glands

·    At rest, in a cool environment a normal person loses about ½ litre of sweat per day

·    During  training, it’s estimated we’re losing about 5 litres a day

Euwww. And if that wasn’t enough to make you turn your nose up how about this one - you can smell a giraffe from ¼ mile away. The smell repels ticks.

I am reasonably confident NONE of this will be examinable.

The Boss was back on Thursday and marked the occasion with a memorable class. He was running late and class went over time, so I had the pleasure of over 2 ½ hrs in the torture chamber. He was tough. There were many fallen soldiers.

The lecture that followed gave me greater understanding of the lesson he was teaching us that night.

“Hi dead meat!” he greeted us.

He proceeded to speak about Vedanta Yoga – the philosophy of yoga and the problems of the Western world caused by so much freedom and choice.

“Lie down on a water bed. You get arthritis. I am from India. I grew up on a bed of nails. My back is fine.”

Our minds are trained in negative attitudes from childhood and every second of every day we are damaging our bodies.  We work all day. We are angry, tired and our bodies hurt. By doing something as simple as 90 minutes of yoga our minds are clear. Once a day we have to “flush the toilet” so to speak. Yoga creates discipline and allows us to become best friends with our minds. No one can ever make you do something against your mind and your mind will never, ever let you do anything that will hurt your spirit.

That’s all it takes to change lives. 26 and 2 and ‘lock the knee’.

Yes, it was a fantastic lecture - even by Bikram’s own admission.

“What I have said, in the last two hours – if you type it – it would be the best book ever written.”

The night was capped off with a marathon session of Mahabharat. It reminds me of the 70’s Japanese show Monkey.  It really is impossible to adequately describe the production values, the quality of acting, special effects and the sweeping scale of this epic but you too can experience the first episode here.

Pain. It really is a priceless gift.

“Without it, we would not survive.”

This was the topic for Emmy Cleaves' lecture on Tuesday.

But the fact is – when it comes to yoga we are not just surviving, we are starting to thrive. It has taken time. Sure, many of us had practiced daily before coming here and have practiced doubles. But NINE WEEKS WORTH OF DOUBLES?? No way!

We are getting stronger physically and mentally. There was one yoga class this week when the nurse’s station was completely EMPTY afterwards. All 430 of us STAYED IN THE ROOM! We have completed 32 yoga classes and we are one third of the way through our training. I believe what we were told on day one – we will walk out of here and look different, sound different and be different people!

This week we said goodbye to Bikram and hello to his wife Rajashree. She has taught evening classes and with Emmy teaching Tuesday and Thursday mornings there has been a lot more feminine energy. Bikram’s method involves a lot of entertainment and distraction, while Emmy and Rajashree focus on precision and mindfulness of movement. Classes have been very different.  

It was Rajashree’s birthday this weekend so we celebrated at the end of class Friday night with a huge red velvet cake. Great fuel for yoga!

We have started two weeks of anatomy lectures, with Dr Jim Preddy. It’s fascinating to hear some of his stories on life as an Emergency Physician and learn about the skeletal, muscular and nervous systems. Best of all, he practices yoga so it is great to hear him relate things back to the postures and to see him sweating alongside us in yoga class.

We are now in full swing with posture clinics. Each day we break into smaller groups and meet with a panel of three teachers. We take turns to deliver the dialogue for whichever posture we are working on that day and receive feedback. I find it reassuring to think these are the toughest conditions we’ll ever have to ‘perform’ in.  It’s not normal to have 50 people sitting on the floor watching as I deliver a posture (out of context) and get critiqued. This feels more like auditions for American Idol!

A hard days work

It has been a positive experience and I am receiving helpful feedback. Through this process I am meeting people who are just starting to learn the dialogue and we have been able to find some memorisation techniques that work and practice together. I have found this aspect rewarding, it is cementing my knowledge and giving me a little experience in what it is like to ‘teach.’

This week I learned that pain is a priceless gift – but so is a Shakti trunk sale when it pops up next door to your hotel.  And when we are working so hard Monday to Friday I think we all deserve a little retail therapy on the weekend!