Leaving

Wow!

So much has happened our last week of teaching training.

Teachers shared their first time teaching stories all week. My god. I laughed so hard. One teacher couldn't remember in breathing if head is up or down so she just counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - twenty times, then tried to do three sets of camel, and fives sets of seated stretching. At the end she thanks the whole class for allowing her to give such a wonderful class, turns off the lights, gets them into savasana and then through the darkness a man yells out, So are we gonna do our final breathing or what? HAHAHAHAH I laughed so hard. She then turns back on the lights, gets them up and proceeds to finish the breathing.

So funny.

My first class. I"m so nervous. My plan is to smile, give good energy and get everyone in and out of the postures. I have so much information to pass on about this yoga, but will probably only be able to start sharing it after months and months of teaching. Speaking the dialogue is my most important task at hand right now. It's going to crazy. I want my first class goes smooth.

Everyone has their first class date set up. I'm so fortunate - I have 9 classes my first week. Some people don't have a home studio to go home to, some have to beg for classes between 5 packed studios and some have to try out to teach at their studio. I am so fortunate. I can't wait!! I have so much work to do to prepare for my first day of teaching. Looking forward to it. I"m sure I'll confuse a right leg with a left leg. We'll see!

Craig V. usually runs teacher training and he arrived the last week and gave us the closure we needed in his lectures and classes he taught. He is a great teacher. Glad to have him around even if for a week.

We had an advanced class demonstration with 82 year old Emmy, Bikram, some other senior teachers and the Yoga Asana Champion Esek. It was AMAZING. I"ll try to post some pics. WOW!

(ps. Note to self. I've got to do a trip to New York, Boston, and Maryland to see Yogis and teach, Plan to attend in Feb the Asana Championships in LA, a thought-not concrete yet-Visiting teacher training spring in Palm springs, Visiting my friend Jeff's studios in Austin in March, and 100% going to India next year for my birthday for the festival of lights, visit Bikrams new studio in Calcutta and the Yoga school Bikram studied at)

PS. Next teacher training is 99.9% in Palm Springs, CA at a kick ass resort.

We finished our last day of yoga with Raj teaching the morning class and Bikram teaching our last and final class together. It was amazing. Lots of parents and family of grads in the room. I can't imagine what they think of all this. Especially with Bikram standing of the backs of students while in stretching pose. There was a lot of energy in the room and a huge celebration after!! I will never forget 300+ people all moving into Triangle at the same moment. It's amazing.

Friday night we had our talent show. WOW! We had 3 MC's (one my buddy Isaac) that had us laughing all night. My friend Nelli did an amazing dance to my friend Pamela's words about breath. It started things off. There was lots of amazing singing, dancing, and skits. One skit was hilarious. Two girls were meeting after a year of being Bikram teachers. They met at a restaurant wearing headsets with giant water coolers. One moved the table to a better spot in the room under the vent (just like we do in the hot room). One gave a speech to the other (like giving dialogue in posture clinics) and broke down crying cause she didn't' remember what she was going to say and felt sick this morning and studied it all night till 3 am. SO FUNNY!!!! It was a great great talent show.

The next day I was a glutton for punishment. Even though Friday was the last class, there was still a Saturday class. I took my final and 100th class in 60 days!!! It was so funny. There was about 60 or so of us. We all charged in the room, checked the vents, and put our mats RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER! It was sooo funny. There was the entire entire room and all of us put our mats combat style right on top of each other like there were over 300 people in the room. Creatures of habit.

Graduation was a great big wonderful ceremony. We heard Bishnu Gosh's (Bikrams Guru) voice in a speech. There were speeches and thank yous. Most of the senior staff was there, Emmy, Diane, Lynn, Mike.
30 of the best yoga practitioners in our class did a demonstration on stage with Raj leading it. It was so beautiful. Imagine all 26 postures with the two breathing exercises performed in flow and perfection to the fullest expression of each posture. Amazing to see. My yoga is full of struggle and pain:)
Bikram spoke and reminded us again that the most important thing in our life is LIFE and we will be giving it by teaching Yoga. He talked about us being humans made up of Mind, Body and Spirit. Then each of our names were called as we walked across stage to receive our diploma's for Bikram's Yoga College of India. Bikram himself handed it to each of us and we paused for a picture then went to kiss and thank Raj. It was so cool.

After we had a big beach side dinner and said our goodbyes till late in the evening. Everybody looks and feels so beautiful in our new bodies.

Today is packing, cleaning up and more goodbyes. I am taking a bus this afternoon to Mexico City with some yogi's traveling to teach their first class in Mexico City!! I'll be flying out Nov 17- Monday.

Thanks for being a part of the journey. My mind, body and spirit are in the best shape of my life. It feels so good.

I hope to see you in my class one day!

Cheers! Take care of yourself:)