N sided polygons

A pentagon that slowly moved to a Triangle..

One of my teachers was saying "we should all take pictures of us doing Yoga from angles that we don't see in the mirror. It will tell you a lot about what you think you are doing vs. what you are actually doing!"

"Be careful, you might not like what you see" was the message.

Photography and Yoga.. two things close to the heart.. coming together for a greater good?

Why not?

Was showing kids how "pentagon" and "triangle" are not the same thing. I used to do the Triangle pose like a pentagon till three years ago. Then Jim Kallet came and showed me how to sit down properly in this pose.

Later Michelle made a dancing reference and it got better.

Three months back Fire taught me a few things about locking legs.. as well as how to tilt my head before moving my arms and how to twist my head to get my profile to the mirror in the Triangle pose. The idea was to get my chin to the shoulder (I was doing cheek to shoulder).

This is a lot better than the version from 4 years ago but... 

 

I used to think in class that the profile of my face was visible to the mirror.. It is not! Still have to turn my face further up and to my left. 

My right thumb sticks out. It is supposed to be touching the rest of the fingers. 

Shoulders are supposed to be in one line and I thought they were in one line. They are not.

This is a real lifelong process of course correction. Will use this as a reference picture and see how it changes next year same time.

The little one took a video of my balancing stick. My knee is at 150 degrees. Definitely not even close to 180! My body is like a table top, but with a bent leg. Have to get it at least a little closer before posting a picture or video. 

By the way THE TRIANGLE ? it is the space between my thighs, forearm and body.. That gap should be a BIG triangle, preferably a right angled one... 

There is a lot of time to get there.

A lot of difference, a letter does make

Master Yoda : Do. Or do not. There is no try.

Master Yoga : Try, not do. There is only try

For someone who is a fan of Yo(d,g)a this is like being in the twilight zone.

One is dealing with the willingness to start something and the other deals with a continous process where it takes a long long time to see results. 

As most of you know, I had signed up for another 60 day challenge at BYSJ three months ago. No one at home really wanted me to sign up during summer as they knew our social calendar was busy and they told me upfront... "no doubles". They were also trying to give me a reality check saying "you are going to miss three weeks to  three different international trips. what are you thinking?"

It was not that they thought doing two classes in one day was tough for me. They could not spare close to 4 hours a day of my time on the weekends I was here. 

Having signed up, used sticker time and conversations with friends to do the best I could. Would do yoga in the morning and catch international flights, would come back after being awake for 36 hours to do yoga, go anytime possible during days I was here.. there is a long list. But in the last 10 days, it became clear, that no amount of doubles could play catch up. So it was 46/60 this time. 

We went to the Challenge party to listen to inspirational stories of those who finished. Folks dealing with early alzhimers, brain surgery recovery, doing it as a birthday present for their spouse, signing up to encourage friends, covering the challenge over 7 different studios and last but not least, a teacher who has been doing Bikram yoga once a day for the last 6 years without a break! It was a truly humbling experience for me and the kids listening to these stories.  

Jr. came home and said "I would like to write a guest post on your blog about how the 60 day challenge is actually stressfull for the persons who live with the person who does the challenge.. it is like you are one of those guys who drinks alcohol and they cannot stop drinking.. you go to one class, then you have to keep going.. and we have to see you spend more time at yoga on weekends". 

I promised my kids that the best lesson from this Challenge and the party was different from the previous ones.

- learned to accept that sometimes you finish challenges and sometimes you do not. Trying makes all the difference. if you can look in that mirror and say "I gave it all I got" and can accept yourself, that is a big deal. the person in the mirror is the most unforgiving of the lot.

- there is always another challenge coming

- did spend time with the kids on the last two weekends doing only one class a day instead of trying doubles. It was a conscious choice and the right one. 

The challenge from my own family has been to do at least 200 classes a year. Have 33 more to go this year. The last 90 days of this year has many more trips, holidays, festivals, school events etc. in the offing. We will see if the 200/year challenge is a success.

One other thing to mention. After coming back from those long flights, I used to walk into the yoga room feeling like the Ra character in Stargate who keeps getting younger after going into a special chamber, or those assasins in the "Wanted" movie who would be all shot up, go lie in a bath of molten waxy stuff and magically wake up with all their wounds healed.

Hot yoga is like soaking in a bath of Iodex (we used to use it for pain relief as kids in India.. it is Bengay and Voltaren all mixed in one) for 90 minutes. Came out feeling a lot better than when going into the room on every occasion.

That has been the one constant in an otherwise varying educational journey. Every day is different, but always felt better after class than before!

A heartfelt congratulations to everyone who finished the Challenge! Will see you at sticker time on the next one. 

Eventually, there will come a time where I can stick to a schedule and do Yoga everyday. Eventually....

The many degrees of "relaxation"

Today was a very special yoga day. Bikram Yoga San Jose had a special class at 10AM with Rajashree Choudhury teaching the class.

We have heard so much about her teaching style and how special her class is from the teachers. So it was a not to miss experience. A lot of times I end up missing classes taught by visiting teachers because of the travel schedule. Was fortunate to be in town to attend this class.

The dialogue in every Bikram yoga class is the same. The time for every class is the same 90 minutes but the teachers are a broad spectrum. On one side we have the high energy fire breathing dragon drill seargents and on the other side we have the hypnotic horse whisperers. Then there are varying mixes of the two combinations. The end result after the class is more or less the same. You are completely drained of thought and you are happy to go out into the world, all zoned out! 

Once in a while you get someone on either extreme who can make you feel more zoned out than you think was possible. Not talking about doing a pose deeper or more correct to the form during class here...

It is about a certain silence in your head that is just quieter than the usual. We should have a scale to quantify silence, that is exponential like the Decibel scale or the Richter scale.

Maybe "silence" is the wrong word here as this is not the opposite of noise. It is more than just the absence of sound. It the absence of any sensory data going into your brain to disturb you. 

We had a great class today where Rajashree took us through the usual 90 minute routine with some tidbits of information thrown in. Most of them were about why we do what we do in class and encouraging us to persevere.  

Then when the poses and final breathing was over and we were all stretched out on the mats, she started talking softly, telling us how to relax. There are one or two teachers who try this by saying "relax your neck, your shoulders, your hips... " and they make you consciously relax your body head to toe. What we heard today was different. It was advice, technique and hypnotism at work. 

After a few minutes of listening to her talk, I had no idea what she was even saying! It was almost a whisper. It was like being submerged in a tank of water or what the astronauts decribe as part of their space walk experience. You know there is a tether connecting you to the world but it seems to be getting more and more distant as time passes.

Got a tingling sensation in the left side of my head after a few minutes into this "whispering shavasana". Usually tingles in the hot room means that blood is flowing to that part of your body for the first time in a long time. Within a few minutes there were tingling sensations all over my brain and at that point the whisper became very faint.

Then everyone clapped for some reason and was back to staring at the light on the ceiling. It was like coming back out of anesthesia after a surgery and staring at the lights or that is the closest I can explain what happened after being "so far out there".

Had been in shavasana for more than 15 minutes. For a person who runs out at the end of 90 minutes on any given day because of a conference call to attend or a kid to pick up from some class on the way home, the extra 15 minutes is a luxury. Today it was a real lesson. Now I know why the teachers say "missing the 2 minute shavasana at the end of class is like working very hard, then forgetting to collect your paycheck". 

Going to stay on the mat after class for longer times, at least on weekend classes or Friday evenings going forward. 

Todays class was like a power surge that forcibly reset the hardware in my head. Now the trick is to relive this experience after every yoga class!

After class we got to talk to Rajashree for a few minutes.  Jr. had come to BYSJ so she could see what this was all about and also clicked a picture.

Wanted to tell her so many things. Wanted to show her how my broken hand is now normal again. How Bikram Yoga has given me a second chance and made me believe in the concept of second chances, but before I said anything she mentions her son wears a Janau and asks me if I do Sandhya Vandhanam every day. Told her that I do it most days but only once a day.

My Bikram Yoga attendance is better than my Sandhya Vandhanam frequency. She says "do that as well! it is good for you"

Jr. was all smiles when she said "your daughter is beautiful". Today Jr. saw almost a 100 people come out all smiling after class and line up to talk to Rajashree. It is my sincere hope she does yoga again soon. Given how busy she is with 8th grade, she could really use it. 

It was truly a "special experience" like the teachers at BYSJ told us over the last few days.

Hats off.. we should really say "Mats off" to Rajashree Choudhury, the "horse whisperer extraordinaire"!