I had the happiest day ! The yoga rang my chimes. We could either go to the 6:30 or the 8:45 am class at the main Shala with Saraswati. I chose the early one and had a hard time sleeping again- cause I kept thinking about getting up at 5:30. I knew I’d have to get there by 6:00 to get a spot. Allynn made me coffee and walked me in the dark about 4 blocks to the Shala. A crowd had formed outside and I sat on the curb and waited with the others for the doors to open. Finally when they did, there was a wave of bodies, moving up the wide staircase, tucking their shoes beneath the ferns and we were on our way into the Mecca of Ashtanga Yoga! The first item of business was to lay my mat down and I quickly surveyed the landscape and noticed a vacant spot second row near center . I opened my mat, put it there and set off to explore the ladies changing room. It was quite fancy, compared to the tiny space at Saraswathi’s home studio. There are even shelves for storage plus stairs up to a second level where there are lockers! And 2 bathrooms WITH toilet paper! – you have to bring your own in India! Getting to my mat I was thinking I’d rather have a less visible spot- to the side- back- but here I was, kind of front and center, and by now, the spaces were all taken. There was no turning back! And the guy right in front of me was very tall, so as we got going, his heels were practically in my mouth during chaturanga. So I backed up my mat 3 inches and I hoped I hadn’t imposed myself on the girl behind me! This is all so complicated! Yikes!
The room has a high ceiling and it was not oppressively hot. And I was really enjoying being in the led class because there are so many things for me to learn. First, I realized I am doing the jump backs wrong! Silly me- wonder why it took me so long for me to figure this out. I am not lifting off the floor- with my hands under me- I spring forward- onto my hands (probably because I don’t have the strength to lift my body.) What a surprise to find this out so late in the game- and now I have a lot to try to figure out. I will work on this in class tomorrow. We got to that pose I can’t do; Saraswathi was nice enough to stand behind me and help me balance (lotus shoulder stand – hands on knees) and finally class was over- one hour and 45 minutes. And I was feeling elated. I hadn’t embarrassed myself in my center spot. And after I had showered and I was walking with Allynn to our favorite cafe, this incredible feeling of joy rose up in me. I felt wonderfully happy. I guess it was the result of going after something I really wanted to do and every cell in my body wanted to do it too. I’ve been here, doing yoga for a week but being in the main Shala has all the photos on the walls, the history to it. And the feeling of the energy in the room during a led class where everyone is doing the the same poses together is quite powerful. After breakfast and doing a sketch at the cafe we went to an Indian cooking class. It was quite delightful and impressive – to see the amount of effort to make this delicious food. I guess Indian women do not work out side of the home so they spend a lot of their time cooking.
We learned how to prepare an ocra dish, a vegetable curry, dahl ( soup) and a bread out of whole wheat flour and water called chipatti. You kneed the dough- let it sit for 30 minutes then make balls and roll it out into thin pancakes and fry it . Then we got to eat all this delicious food!
As we left the cooking class I couldn’t believe how gorgeous the day was – warm, the air was dry and clear and we began a walk and eventually went to a market place where stuff from all over India is sold.
I was looking for a dress and found leggings instead ($2.50). What a happy day it has been for me and I am looking forward to yoga tomorrow. I finished the workshop on Transformational Healing and on Tue. Allynn and I are starting a 14 day workshop on leading people into past life regressions. I bought my notebook today – not sure if I can sit still all that time- 2:00-5:00 every day! We’ll see – tomorrow I get my hair colored- should be scary!
Love to you all in the Land of Milk and Honey! Enjoy some hot chocolate you snow bunnies! Love and Namaste, Annie