My Advanced Class Experience

So I find myself dragging the left side of my face across my sweat-soaked Aquazorb towel while my legs are trapped in lotus position trying to get up from a pose where I had to press both shoulders to the floor. I cannot untangle my legs to save my life and knew that I was in trouble when the teachers said "Change!" That pretty much sums up my experience attending an advanced class. Struggle, struggle, and more struggle.

An advanced class is composed of the 84 classic asanas practiced with the teacher demonstrating and taking the lead. 

Here is a poster featuring THE Bikram Choudhury doing all the poses in perfection. 

Photo from yogilifestyle.com

Even though I was nowhere near looking like ANY of the pictures above I was able to realize some things that would definitely help me in my yoga journey. 

1. More than anything, attending the advanced class broadened my horizons. It made me realize that beyond the 26 poses of the beginner's course there is so much more out there to aspire and achieve in this yoga journey.

2. It was an honor to witness strong and inspiring yogis performing pose after pose in utter perfection. 

3. The advanced class made the beginner's course look...easy! Although I know it is NOT at all a walk in the park, I'm sure that my experience in the advanced class will help me pull through when I'm in the middle of the poses that are more challenging to me like Standing Head to Knee. 

Photo from ohmybikram.wordpress.com

It will remind me that there are far more difficult poses than probably the one I am in. 

This is all of us after the class. Yay, we made it to the end!

Yogini, Interrupted

And so the journey starts with...a detour. I have not been practicing for over a month. The routine at home changed since school started and this is me trying to adjust (and refusing to part with my cash because I'm also in the middle of unplanned but necessary expenses left and right...but that's another story).

So here I am sitting and barely unable to move because yesterday was the first time after a long time that I went in for Bikram yoga. 

I expected for things to be difficult--to be stiff, unbendy, and to get tired easily--but was I in for a shock! I sat down and rested more times than I'd like to admit, had difficulty breathing, dizzy the whole time even in Savasana... I mean the worst feeling on the mat ever. I felt like my head was vibrating like Aquaman sending sonar waves to the Hall of Justice. 

In the middle of it all I was half convinced that it was a bad decision to go back but who am I kidding? I know I needed to sooner or later. Needless to say I made it to the end and decided that I will go back the next day. That is, after I spent half an hour recovering on the floor while the rest of the class got up and continued with their lives. I also realized how dehydrated I was to handle this comeback. I finished my near-liter of water plus two Gatorades. Did you catch that? Two bottles. TWO!

This parting shot is of my trusty water bottle that I noticed was beginning to peel its label. It must be losing hope that she will be used again by her owner and was on slow suicide mode.

This Journey

Spring of 2014. Mid-April of next year. It's just several months away until I fulfill one of the biggest dreams of my adult life.

Do you know what it feels like to chase a dream? To not give up and sacrifice knowing that every step you take and every decision you make in life from this point contributes to the fulfillment of that dream?

My goal is to become a certified Bikram Yoga teacher. I hope you watch this space as I document my adventures on my journey towards being just that. Here we go!