This mornings class was taught by a guy from Northern California. It was the most boring, unmotivated, monotone class I have had since I got here. It was very hard to understand him when he talked and he was a very slow talker. He started the class with a seven minute explanation of what the yoga did for us, what it involved, how we will feel and what the breathing exercises do. I could just feel the energy level go down and the eyes rolling when he did that, not a good way to start a class. It would have been perfect at home explaining the class to beginner but not here when we know it all already and at this point I just want in and out of the hot room.
During class it took so much effort to listen to him that I actually tuned him out after party time (between third and fourth posture). I took that sip of water and then my mind took a trip back home. I was back at my home studio and all I heard was my teachers teaching me class at home. I came out of head to knee stretching (second last posture), looked at the podium and I remember thinking, ‘oh wow, I totally forgot what was going on up there. I haven’t looked up there since the beginning of class’. That’s not exactly what you want to do in class but it was necessary for this one. I was just doing the motions and it was the second time since I got here that I thought about sitting down the entire time because I was bored. Next thing I know I hear Latisha’s words that she told us yesterday come into my head. ‘This is week five, you are over the hump. You are teachers now, be a leader’. So I sucked it up, went inside my head and got through it. I don’t think it helped I performed about 21 triangles yesterday in preparation for or in posture clinic. For those of you who don’t know, triangle used every muscle, joint, organ and gland in the body, yah a little exhausting after a while.
After lunch we had posture clinic, onto the last of the standing postures. It is so crazy to think that we know the dialogue for 50 minutes of class already, it blows my mind when I think about it like that. We had Michael Harris today as our lead, he owns a studio in Bent, Orgeon. It was by far the most relaxed and fun posture clinic we had had so far. He was in people’s faces, making people do posture mistakes so they would have to be corrected. He was also demonstrating the postures, corrected our postures and made break throughs with students.
We have one student in our group who has English as a second language. He has been struggling to get the dialogue out this entire time, he knows it, it just doesn’t come out. Michael did some things with him and asked him if he was ready to have a break through. Michael worked with him, in the class, in front of everyone, he was ready and it worked, he did it. It was unbelievable and so cool to witness, everyone in our group was hootin and hollering when he finished. I think he just broke through his barrier, this is just the beginning for him now. It was also nice to see a smile on his face when he finished…so cool.
Michael also taught evening class tonight which started off with a bang. He walked in with a robe, sunglasses, hat on, and escorted by two female staff members to ‘Eye of a Tiger’. It was quite funny and a great start to the class. He started teaching with his sunglasses on but ended up taking them off because they were fogging up on him. At eagle he pulled 63 year old teacher trainee Carol from his studio up to the podium. He gave her the head set, took her place on her mat and she recited Eagle for us. It was so cool to see one of us trainees up there teaching the class. At balancing stick, he pulled another girl up that locked her knee in standing bow to say balancing stick to us. They both received big cheers and applause after, they rocked it out. There was some light hearted moments in the class but most of all everyone rocked it out with smiles on their faces. At the end of class he asked Dale if anyone had left class, to which Dale yelled ‘NOOOOOOOOOO’! What a difference a teacher with a little fun will do for 300 students. The class still ended in just over 90 minutes which I wasn’t expecting it to. In Savasansa Michael got them to play ‘Cel-e-brate good times, c’mon’, as he was walking out. The class seemed so easy because everyone was so loose and really enjoying the class, what a shift from the AM class.
Tonight we have more posture clinic and Michael announced in class that once we are finished the standing postures they are going to give us a bit of break. They are going to take some time and talk about different yoga things with us and give us a breather because we have been cruising so quickly. Now its time to study tree and toe stand, last standing postures so I can relax a bit.
Our group was half a posture behind others because it took us so long to get through the them this afternoon with Michael. They ended up switching us with another group that was all ready to perform tree and toe. I really didn’t think we were going to get to it tonight, but you could tell the other group was happy to stall for a bit longer because we still had the previous posture to finish up with. I decided to perform my tree and toe postures tonight. I am at the point where I am tired of worrying and thinking about presenting each posture. I still get a bit nervous when I get up there but its something I’ve had to deal with. I even wake up in the middle of the night saying the posture I just presented. I just give my head a shake and say, think about the next one, usually that works and then my mind warfs into crazy dreams.
Let me tell you, the dreams have been crazy. They have involved my family and friends and involved anything from killing people, to casing people, locking doors, driving cars, playing games and visiting people. I looked them all up and they all have to with training, new experinces, learning new things, new doors opening and being in a new strange environment. So cool how the mind talks to you sometimes.
During class it took so much effort to listen to him that I actually tuned him out after party time (between third and fourth posture). I took that sip of water and then my mind took a trip back home. I was back at my home studio and all I heard was my teachers teaching me class at home. I came out of head to knee stretching (second last posture), looked at the podium and I remember thinking, ‘oh wow, I totally forgot what was going on up there. I haven’t looked up there since the beginning of class’. That’s not exactly what you want to do in class but it was necessary for this one. I was just doing the motions and it was the second time since I got here that I thought about sitting down the entire time because I was bored. Next thing I know I hear Latisha’s words that she told us yesterday come into my head. ‘This is week five, you are over the hump. You are teachers now, be a leader’. So I sucked it up, went inside my head and got through it. I don’t think it helped I performed about 21 triangles yesterday in preparation for or in posture clinic. For those of you who don’t know, triangle used every muscle, joint, organ and gland in the body, yah a little exhausting after a while.
After lunch we had posture clinic, onto the last of the standing postures. It is so crazy to think that we know the dialogue for 50 minutes of class already, it blows my mind when I think about it like that. We had Michael Harris today as our lead, he owns a studio in Bent, Orgeon. It was by far the most relaxed and fun posture clinic we had had so far. He was in people’s faces, making people do posture mistakes so they would have to be corrected. He was also demonstrating the postures, corrected our postures and made break throughs with students.
We have one student in our group who has English as a second language. He has been struggling to get the dialogue out this entire time, he knows it, it just doesn’t come out. Michael did some things with him and asked him if he was ready to have a break through. Michael worked with him, in the class, in front of everyone, he was ready and it worked, he did it. It was unbelievable and so cool to witness, everyone in our group was hootin and hollering when he finished. I think he just broke through his barrier, this is just the beginning for him now. It was also nice to see a smile on his face when he finished…so cool.
Michael also taught evening class tonight which started off with a bang. He walked in with a robe, sunglasses, hat on, and escorted by two female staff members to ‘Eye of a Tiger’. It was quite funny and a great start to the class. He started teaching with his sunglasses on but ended up taking them off because they were fogging up on him. At eagle he pulled 63 year old teacher trainee Carol from his studio up to the podium. He gave her the head set, took her place on her mat and she recited Eagle for us. It was so cool to see one of us trainees up there teaching the class. At balancing stick, he pulled another girl up that locked her knee in standing bow to say balancing stick to us. They both received big cheers and applause after, they rocked it out. There was some light hearted moments in the class but most of all everyone rocked it out with smiles on their faces. At the end of class he asked Dale if anyone had left class, to which Dale yelled ‘NOOOOOOOOOO’! What a difference a teacher with a little fun will do for 300 students. The class still ended in just over 90 minutes which I wasn’t expecting it to. In Savasansa Michael got them to play ‘Cel-e-brate good times, c’mon’, as he was walking out. The class seemed so easy because everyone was so loose and really enjoying the class, what a shift from the AM class.
Tonight we have more posture clinic and Michael announced in class that once we are finished the standing postures they are going to give us a bit of break. They are going to take some time and talk about different yoga things with us and give us a breather because we have been cruising so quickly. Now its time to study tree and toe stand, last standing postures so I can relax a bit.
Our group was half a posture behind others because it took us so long to get through the them this afternoon with Michael. They ended up switching us with another group that was all ready to perform tree and toe. I really didn’t think we were going to get to it tonight, but you could tell the other group was happy to stall for a bit longer because we still had the previous posture to finish up with. I decided to perform my tree and toe postures tonight. I am at the point where I am tired of worrying and thinking about presenting each posture. I still get a bit nervous when I get up there but its something I’ve had to deal with. I even wake up in the middle of the night saying the posture I just presented. I just give my head a shake and say, think about the next one, usually that works and then my mind warfs into crazy dreams.
Let me tell you, the dreams have been crazy. They have involved my family and friends and involved anything from killing people, to casing people, locking doors, driving cars, playing games and visiting people. I looked them all up and they all have to with training, new experinces, learning new things, new doors opening and being in a new strange environment. So cool how the mind talks to you sometimes.
1 comment:
Hi Melissa, welcome to the end of the 'hump week' & finishing the standing series! It's a fabulous feeling. Know things will really go quicker from here. Since the floor series has so few words (which was more difficult for me!), we went through 3 postures a day in PC. You sound like you've been rockin' dialog, so you should be fine. Just get as many into your head this weekend as possible (duh, like that’s new!). I see your had your big cry... it can be difficult for you strong ones who hold it for so long. ;) Hopefully, it helped in whatever way you needed it! Hang in there!! You're really doing great!! Not to be too sunshiny but seriously, looking across the blogs, your outlook on all of this is refreshing! Take care!
~Roxanne (sp’08 former Group 13!!)
Post a Comment