Teaching 35 Minutes of Mindfulness

Hooooooray!

I just finished my final practicum - a 6am Mindful Intermediate class and it was so great! I LOVED teaching it (with my fantastic partner Nancy) and it worked out really well.

do you know what that means?? I have finished all the course work for the Yoga Teacher Training!! Tomorrow is "graduation day" and I will be certified (in a new and non-insane-asylum way) in less than 24 hours (Indian time, probably).

I am more and more excited to teach yoga when I get back... hopefully there will be an opportunity or three in Southern Alberta

p.s. I also finished off my "contentment study" and handed in the paper and did my presentation (the later went really REALLY well). Now I am just looking forward to some time to relax and reflect... and we've got another beach-day-afternoon today after lunch. Perfect.

p.p.s. for an non but future travel update... I got into the National University of Ireland's Public Activism and Advocacy program AND managed to wire transfer my deposit fee FROM India. I give myself two gold stars for that :) And for those of you who already knew this, thank you for your excitement and support! I am so lucky in so many ways and grateful for all of you and all the world is handing me lately. Contentment? No problem!

Surprise!

Two nights ago I had strange dreams... childhood friends I haven't seen in five or six years in jail? Doing a pre-natal yoga class?! Being hit by a blue Rishikesh tuk-tuk?!

The last two... were the true ones. Well, I guess I haven't checked into the friend. I hope she's not in jail... highly doubt it. But maybe you're thinking: "Lyndia, doing pre-natal yoga requires, well... the pre-natal!" Well..yesterday morning: I found out I was pregnant... and while "being aware of my body" actually started to feel it. Okay, fine... my "pillow baby" was certainly not 20lbs but my arms were hard to lift over my head, my back was strained and I was feeling totally fatigued.

It was a practical 2-hour pregnancy though, terribly efficient and quite relaxing and restorative since it was all consumed doing yoga. There were a few moments of being really emotional too... like after the 5 minute meditation of "getting into my body" and then having the teacher guiding us to "use our breath to hug the baby." That FREAKED me out. (Very un-yoga.) But then I let the experience take over and... like I said, I got into it! The ONLY unbelievable part was that one of the two males in the course was sitting in front of me and every time I saw HIM pregnant... well, it brought me back to reality!

After the class my labour was all of thirty seconds and I turned negligent pretty quickly... left it on the bed and went for breakfast.

Babysitting/motherhood is great so far - sleeps 7.5hours a night, is happy to eat left-over fruit and (contraband cookies) with me and is WAY better at the vow of silence than I am... awww they grow up fast.)

I LOVE this pregnancy!

Practical note: I am definitely going to look into it more when I get home... the PRE-NATAL YOGA of course! :)

Milestones

Alright, I did it!


I TAUGHT MY FIRST YOGA CLASS (okay, co-taught... but let's not let that change anything).

It was super fun and I think I did a pretty good job! Best of all it was around the halfway milestone so I think that's pretty sweet. Oh and near the full moon (tomorrow officially) which is totally auspicious and thus will make my second class (in three days) just as marvelous, I'm sure.

My partner and I decided on the theme of "Breath" for our "intro to Yoga" Beginner's Level class and pretty much rocked it... and by rocked it I mean made some reasonable mistakes, felt nervous, forgot very little and got some great, constructive feedback from our student-peers at the end. *fist pump!*

As such, I celebrated by breaking my ... (no not silence... that was broken long ago)... my aversion to sweets and took a field trip to find the mouth-watering "Local Candy Store" (not its actual name but we don't know the real name... as such we didn't find it, but that might have been why we didn't find it - let's just gloss over that detail for now). We found some treats at a "general store" (which means one of the multitude of un-named shops that sell everything out of a space the size of a bathroom...

Other than that... things are going well and I'm still enjoying things (the good, the challenging and the three consecutive days of dreary/windy/chilly/rain - okay, no not the rain... I am only enjoying it because it is beautiful now and I LOOOOVE that!)

p.s. I was definitely the luckiest girl at the ashram (never, thought I would have said THAT in my life..) when I got a Valentine's Day card on February 15th! In the mail! From Canada!! (Thanks Oma!)

p.p.s. I still haven't heard back from the University of Ireland but am hoping for some good news soon! Maybe by the time I call this weekend.... I won't hold my breath, but my lung capacity HAS certainly increased while here...

Interesting Technique

So far in techniques class we have learned about the physical postures (asanas) that are the oh-so-identifable part of yoga to most folks who "practice" at a gym or via DVDs: stretching, balancing, twisting, downward dog (called "mountain" here... there's different terms in North and South India, who knew!?)
Parvatasana? Yep!
Vakrasana? love it!
Utkatasana? oh yeah.
Tadasana? like a pro
Katichakrasana? got it!
Dhurvasana? and I even know what they all mean!

Jal Neti? Oh.. that's new. Do we put our feet on our head? Do we twist from the low back? Do we tuck the tailbone and engage the abs? No. None of these things... except tilt head and breath through your mouth... this is the saucha kind of yoga: purification. In this case... of the nose. With salt water... by pouring it in one nostril and draining it out the other. No I'm not kidding. No it wasn't bad. Yes I lubricated my nostrils with ghee after. Yes I've done it again since we learned it last week.

I certainly realize this falls very close to the line of "Too Much Information" but I had to share it with you (aka. the world) because of the way in which some people were so shocked but it's really super natural and really helpful. Personally, I've just decided to be open to all experiences (with in reason) and see how things go. I am a fan of the Jal Neti. Seriously. Prevents sinus infections, helps with allergies, eliminate nosebleeds... all with saline and warm water?! Done!

I'll teach you if you want... but rule number one is: No sharing the same Neti pot!

shhhh

I did it.

I had dinner in silence. I tasted. I savoured. I slowed (well, somewhat slower). I was in silence. It was such an inspiring (and partially hilarious) experience that I knew I wanted to do it again.

So I did.

All day Friday (and all day today as well... so I wrote this yesterday to save myself as I am counting "emailing," "postcard writing," and "excessive gesticulation" as deal breakers on the silence thing).

Many people were curious as to why I was doing it or congradulated me, but really it was like Staples always says... that was easy. Really. Like, FOR REAL really! It was energizing and inspiring and I didn't "techincally" cheat once... my exception was during our three hours of "teaching class" I did the exerise when it was my turn to instruct because that is pretty unfair to my partner and to my experience as a soon-to-be yoga teacher (and potential students: "oh sorry, you have that debilitating neck injury... I didn't learn it properly. I was taking a vow of silence." uhhh, doesn't cut it.) Only three people said somehting along the lines of "Oooooh! I was wondering why you weren't talking" when I showed them my homemade "silence badge" (don't worry I have a picture... on my camera...)

That's why I wanted to try again on Sunday - our "day off" when I will have no cop-outs or lost teaching experience.

Friday though, I was so inspired to just be reflective and take things slow... so refreshing. So balancing. And then half way through supper I was struck with the thought of "silent meditation!" I found a little space and a candle and my meditation shawl (the beautiful semi-expensive-but-not-relative-to-prices-at-home equitibly-woven-by-a-women's-coop) and aimed for 20 minutes of meditation... but.. dun da da dun: 1 hour! I was impressed! And, again, inspired. THIS is what I came for. THIS is what I need to focus on.

The best meditation exercise? I focused on the phrase "Contentment leads to unsurpassed joy." And I felt it. Well... joy at least... I can't exactly quantify the "unsurpassed" part. But I do feel a bit more inspired on the Contentment Study once again.