The participants are so helpful and caring here. I’m still struggling with names, but people you don’t even know are honestly pulling for you. They know exactly what you are experiencing and really, really want you to succeed. I can see where they say you make lifelong friends here. I stop and think that there were 3oo people in the world that decided to undertake this challenge and each and every day, regardless of the language you speak or your country of origin, these people are pulling for you. It’s funny, at one point in week 2 we had a voice coach speak and she had people come up on stage and talk. When I got up I said that I had decided to seek out struggling people so I could give them a kind word and a touch because a couple of people had done that for me and I could not believe the difference it made. Now, if an instance where I struggle arises (which seems to be getting further and further apart), it seems that from somewhere I’ll get a simple touch on the arm or leg from some direction that refocuses my efforts. It’s really cool that people responded in that fashion! I wonder if people are touching each other like that all over the yoga room? I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that after my last cramping episode, Patrice noticed how zapped I was at breakfast and gave me a little coin about the size of a quarter. It was a very sweet gesture as the coin had an angel on one side and the words “you’re never alone” on the other side. It seemed like I held it in my clinched fist for several hours after she had given it to me. She said several days later at dinner that I should feel free to pass it on and that is exactly what I intend on doing the next time I see someone experiencing what I was going through! Thanks Patrice!
Mary read my blog and said that the toilet in their room was not the way that I had described the one in our room. While studying dialogue I noticed she was indeed correct in her observation and we called guest services. The one in our room was fixed and now works great. I do not want to give Mexico a bad reputation when it comes to “the flush”. Speaking of the toilet, my stomach seems to have settled down quite a bit and while I don’t want to put the whammy on myself, I feel as if I may be over the hump in this regard.
We took Craig’s class again on Saturday morning and everyone sort of had a look of dread and fear on their faces as he entered the room to begin class. They were already anticipating his extra long rendition of awkward pose and his military like pace. I told Mary and Patrice last night at dinner that Craig can’t break me in this posture. I actually held his awkward for the entire time on the first set and fell out just prior to him saying change on the second. He seems to hold the second part of the pose the longest and as people fall out he then “strongly encourages” you to get back in the posture and keep your hands up. He’ll wait and wait and wait before he moves on. It seems like it takes forever and at some point before we leave here I would like to take the opportunity to ask him exactly what his thinking is behind the way he teaches this posture. In all honestly, awkward is the only pose I have ever felt like I could do half way decent even from the time I first stared to practice. My thighs are quite strong and I’m hoping to be able to hold this posture for him a number of times by the completion of our training here.
I’m going to try to get ahead here this weekend with postures and we still have the second half of our anatomy test to complete on Monday, so again anatomy and memorization are on the schedule for Sunday. I would like to have 3 more postures down and know the anatomy fairly well. Incidentally, I only missed 2 questions on the first half so I have a bit of a cushion here on the second part. I did however struggle this week during lectures so I have to study a bit harder. Memorizing the dialogue has been a bit tough and I want to emphasize to anyone who is looking into Bikram’s teacher training what a different experience you will have should you be well versed in the dialogue prior to your arrival. I’m still attempting to find the learning method I respond best to. I am quite fortunate that my “delivery” is something that I don’t have to worry too much about. It’s getting it into my head where I struggle. Everyone who has commented on my dialogue seems to think I have done just great, but when you are standing up there, seconds feel like hours and you are just certain you have missed huge chunks of the dialogue. They say it gets easier and again I am putting faith in the process and have decided to let it go and not get myself all work up. I feel like I’m in high school again and feel quite uncomfortable with the whole “learning process”.
I ate like a horse again this weekend both at dinner on Saturday evening as well as breakfast on Sunday morning. I drank a lot of fluids as well and hope that it works out better for me this week than it did on the second weekend heading into week 3! We shall see what the future holds but for now I actually feel pretty good. I slept very heavy last night (Saturday) and woke up somewhat in a daze with a bit of a sore body that was relieved a bit after a hot shower and a shave. I can’t tell you how good shaving feels after “letting yourself go” for several days. At home I shave in the shower and can’t wait to have the warm water soften my beard and then glide the blade over my skin to clean away the facial hair and leave my skin as soft as a babies bottom! It’s weird to describe shaving like that but it feels quite odd when your regular routine gets disturbed. Standing in front of a mirror and shaving after your shower is just not as good when it comes to getting a smooth, clean shave. Perhaps I’ll talk to our maid tomorrow. We had a chat with her last week and after we tipped her she brought us in some clothesline and pins from her house to hang our wet laundry on out on the balcony. It works great! Perhaps she has a mirror for my shower as well. For now, I’m just letting the gray grow and if I really feel I need a shave I use my electric!
I was informed at breakfast this morning that another defection has taken place. A girl just suddenly disappeared without word. She just packed her bags and left without talking to anyone. Someone who knew her but was not rooming with her was the first to discover what had happened. I can’t imagine many more people bolting as this starts the fourth week of our training here, but you never know what people are thinking. Everyone here has their own demons to grapple with and they can be extremely frightening and at the same time rather convincing. While I feel for her and hope everything works out for her, I simply cannot get to involved in the drama of another person’s experience. I have enough of my own to handle without overloading which it seems is always just one fragile moment away.
I was just talking to Robin on the phone here Sunday night (19:15) and we experienced for the second time during my stay here another earthquake. This felt as if it lasted much longer than the first one we experienced but seemed to me to be about the same in it’s intensity. I was also told that an early morning tremor hit Saturday around 3:00 am, which I did not feel. Here’s the official word:
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A moderate earthquake has rattled Mexico, but no major injuries or damages have been reported. The U.S. Geological Center has given the quake a preliminary magnitude of 5.8. It was centered 96 miles (154 kilometers) north of Acapulco. Sunday's quake caused office buildings to sway and sent many frightened residents into the streets of the capital, Mexico City.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Michelangelo
Well, here’s a rundown of the third week of teacher training 2008 as viewed through he eyes of attendee Frank DiNuzzo. It’s been a wild week and I’ve not had much time to post.
My outgoing email does not seem to be going out properly. I seem to be receiving everyone’s email correctly, but no one is getting responses from me. Please forgive the “glitch” and I will be attempting to resolve the issue this weekend with the hotel staff. Several people have been having the same issue and hopefully it’s easily corrected.
Class # 22 (Monday am) was a very good class for me. I had eaten over the weekend as well as rehydrated and felt great throughout the entire class.
I have decided to do a couple of classes on Sunday so I will have performed 100 total during my time here. People sort of look at me like I’ve lost my mind when I mention it but I think after a couple of more weeks I certainly will be strong enough physically to do it. Giving up the day off mentally is the challenge although I feel better the following day when I perform the yoga. Monday morning classes after the day of inactivity usually results in some stiffness…
No water for class #23. I brought water, but left it outside in the cubbyhole provided for us to store our items while we are participating in class. My mind started to panic at first: what if I need some, what will I do? How will I get it out there? What will the person next to me think if I just grab their water? Now there’s an amusing image, picture in your mind’s eye the person next to you suddenly leaping wild-eyed in your direction about two-thirds into class and grabbing your water bottle like some sort of ravenous squirrel who just found his first nut of the spring! Anyway, it was uneventful and I completed the class without water just as Craig challenged us to do. He actually did not make it a challenge, but he did mentioned it and I felt I was up to giving it a try on that particular day and after all, what was the worst that could happen?
Martha taught class #25 and it was great. She said at the start that she was very proud of Patrice and knew that Herb and Laiki were very proud of us as well. She gave us a nice intro referring to us as the Bloomington 3. I felt pretty rough afterwards as I had some stomach issues I was still dealing with and think I need to up my intake of water in order to compensate. Martha was also the evaluator in my second posture clinic and I was somewhat relieved to have someone I know evaluate me early in the process. I felt somewhat prepared and she gave me a kind review. I have since started to struggle with the dialogue but know that it will come eventually and the tough part is getting up in front of your peers and freezing or stumbling on the words as you give your directions for the posture…
Cramps struck again after class #27 and just like the first week, they were pretty bad. I had 2 people holding me down and Craig, the chief instructor, had his elbow in my right glute to help settle my leg down. More electrolytes and fluids were in store for me for the rest of the evening. Mary & Carla have become like sisters, especially in times like these and I feel Mary would knock someone down if they screwed with me when I was in this condition! I try to look out for them, but physically I seem to be the one who needs the attention and while I don’t want to intimate that they are having a walk in the park, neither of them has had to be carried from the room in a stupor like I have had to be on two separate occasions. The nurse (Leigh) saw me later that day and thinks I may be getting too much liquid. They made me drink a 2-liter “potion” of sea salt, limes, apple juice and water that evening and honestly, it made me feel like a different human being.
I would like to make the assistants the focus of my anger, distress, fear, and several other rather strong emotional releases, but have been unable to detect a single instance when they were not at the ready to render aid with a brilliant smile and a kind word. They just shine like some sort of giant beacon to distressed sailors. Someone actually used that analogy and said during class this week that calm water never made a good sailor and while that may be true, surely rough water has taken it’s share of victims!
Speaking of rough water taking victims, it has been called to my attention that 3 people have abandoned their goal of obtaining a certificate to teach Bikram yoga since the beginning of our training here. I’m sure they had their reasons and I’m also sure they were valid ones, but I sometimes think about the guy who gave his sister a kidney some time ago and the fellow who blew out his knee 2 weeks before training started or the gal with lupus or the ones (plural) with asthma or the one that brought her son here and gets up at 4:30 every morning to study dialogue so she can have some time with him in the evenings. They are all still here and pressing on and it’s inspirational to be a part of.
A chunk of he-man fell off of me today after class #31. When class was over the instructor, Sarah (who happens to be the same gal I mentioned earlier regarding having her leg removed from my grasp with the jaws of life during my first “cramping episode”) talked about teaching from the heart and teaching with love in order to heal others and that while we may have thought that we were “signing up” for something else, this is what we were actually preparing ourselves to do. They started playing the Beatle’s song “All you need is love” and with all due respect to everyone who has ever told me that they love me, as well as everyone I’ve ever told that I love, I don’t believe I have every really been emotionally affected by the word love until today. I stayed there, on my mat, after class and cried for about 30 minutes and find myself weeping again some 3 hours later as I type these words. Imagine a sculptor placing an exacting blow with his hammer and chisel to knock off exactly what needed to be removed from the marble at the exact time it needed to be removed. What is left from the block is the beauty that is the art. It was a profound experience that in and of itself was worth everything I’ve spent, as well as everything I’ve endured for the last 3 weeks. Physically, I will gladly pay the price again over the next 6 weeks if I can have 2 more just like it. I have a lot of he-man baggage that I’ve been unsuccessful in unloading while left to my own devices. I said from the beginning that one of my goals here was that I wanted to be a better man when this was over and for the first time since my arrival, I feel as if I’m better not just physically, but emotionally as well as spiritually.
I wish my dad were still alive so I could share this with him. He was and still is the most courageous man I’ve ever had the opportunity to engage. I would have been so much further ahead in life in a great number of areas had I just submitted a little bit to his wisdom. But I thought it showed weakness. I don’t know what it is about us Italian men, but we think signs of weakness are not to be tolerated. Maybe it’s men in general or maybe it was just the way that I was, I don’t know, but I was always attempting to be the tough one, stoic and unbending. I now have come to realize that there are many different types of “tough guys”. I want to be tough like him. My way was the wrong way dad and I’d give everything I own to be able to tell you that to your face. Sorry it took me so long to truly understand what you were talking about.
Mom, thanks for everything you planted inside me so many years ago. This new spurt of growth promises to take me in directions I’ve never dreamed possible. I love you very much and thank you for all of you efforts over the years. I’m glad your still here to share this with me and I can’t wait to talk with you when I get home.
My outgoing email does not seem to be going out properly. I seem to be receiving everyone’s email correctly, but no one is getting responses from me. Please forgive the “glitch” and I will be attempting to resolve the issue this weekend with the hotel staff. Several people have been having the same issue and hopefully it’s easily corrected.
Class # 22 (Monday am) was a very good class for me. I had eaten over the weekend as well as rehydrated and felt great throughout the entire class.
I have decided to do a couple of classes on Sunday so I will have performed 100 total during my time here. People sort of look at me like I’ve lost my mind when I mention it but I think after a couple of more weeks I certainly will be strong enough physically to do it. Giving up the day off mentally is the challenge although I feel better the following day when I perform the yoga. Monday morning classes after the day of inactivity usually results in some stiffness…
No water for class #23. I brought water, but left it outside in the cubbyhole provided for us to store our items while we are participating in class. My mind started to panic at first: what if I need some, what will I do? How will I get it out there? What will the person next to me think if I just grab their water? Now there’s an amusing image, picture in your mind’s eye the person next to you suddenly leaping wild-eyed in your direction about two-thirds into class and grabbing your water bottle like some sort of ravenous squirrel who just found his first nut of the spring! Anyway, it was uneventful and I completed the class without water just as Craig challenged us to do. He actually did not make it a challenge, but he did mentioned it and I felt I was up to giving it a try on that particular day and after all, what was the worst that could happen?
Martha taught class #25 and it was great. She said at the start that she was very proud of Patrice and knew that Herb and Laiki were very proud of us as well. She gave us a nice intro referring to us as the Bloomington 3. I felt pretty rough afterwards as I had some stomach issues I was still dealing with and think I need to up my intake of water in order to compensate. Martha was also the evaluator in my second posture clinic and I was somewhat relieved to have someone I know evaluate me early in the process. I felt somewhat prepared and she gave me a kind review. I have since started to struggle with the dialogue but know that it will come eventually and the tough part is getting up in front of your peers and freezing or stumbling on the words as you give your directions for the posture…
Cramps struck again after class #27 and just like the first week, they were pretty bad. I had 2 people holding me down and Craig, the chief instructor, had his elbow in my right glute to help settle my leg down. More electrolytes and fluids were in store for me for the rest of the evening. Mary & Carla have become like sisters, especially in times like these and I feel Mary would knock someone down if they screwed with me when I was in this condition! I try to look out for them, but physically I seem to be the one who needs the attention and while I don’t want to intimate that they are having a walk in the park, neither of them has had to be carried from the room in a stupor like I have had to be on two separate occasions. The nurse (Leigh) saw me later that day and thinks I may be getting too much liquid. They made me drink a 2-liter “potion” of sea salt, limes, apple juice and water that evening and honestly, it made me feel like a different human being.
I would like to make the assistants the focus of my anger, distress, fear, and several other rather strong emotional releases, but have been unable to detect a single instance when they were not at the ready to render aid with a brilliant smile and a kind word. They just shine like some sort of giant beacon to distressed sailors. Someone actually used that analogy and said during class this week that calm water never made a good sailor and while that may be true, surely rough water has taken it’s share of victims!
Speaking of rough water taking victims, it has been called to my attention that 3 people have abandoned their goal of obtaining a certificate to teach Bikram yoga since the beginning of our training here. I’m sure they had their reasons and I’m also sure they were valid ones, but I sometimes think about the guy who gave his sister a kidney some time ago and the fellow who blew out his knee 2 weeks before training started or the gal with lupus or the ones (plural) with asthma or the one that brought her son here and gets up at 4:30 every morning to study dialogue so she can have some time with him in the evenings. They are all still here and pressing on and it’s inspirational to be a part of.
A chunk of he-man fell off of me today after class #31. When class was over the instructor, Sarah (who happens to be the same gal I mentioned earlier regarding having her leg removed from my grasp with the jaws of life during my first “cramping episode”) talked about teaching from the heart and teaching with love in order to heal others and that while we may have thought that we were “signing up” for something else, this is what we were actually preparing ourselves to do. They started playing the Beatle’s song “All you need is love” and with all due respect to everyone who has ever told me that they love me, as well as everyone I’ve ever told that I love, I don’t believe I have every really been emotionally affected by the word love until today. I stayed there, on my mat, after class and cried for about 30 minutes and find myself weeping again some 3 hours later as I type these words. Imagine a sculptor placing an exacting blow with his hammer and chisel to knock off exactly what needed to be removed from the marble at the exact time it needed to be removed. What is left from the block is the beauty that is the art. It was a profound experience that in and of itself was worth everything I’ve spent, as well as everything I’ve endured for the last 3 weeks. Physically, I will gladly pay the price again over the next 6 weeks if I can have 2 more just like it. I have a lot of he-man baggage that I’ve been unsuccessful in unloading while left to my own devices. I said from the beginning that one of my goals here was that I wanted to be a better man when this was over and for the first time since my arrival, I feel as if I’m better not just physically, but emotionally as well as spiritually.
I wish my dad were still alive so I could share this with him. He was and still is the most courageous man I’ve ever had the opportunity to engage. I would have been so much further ahead in life in a great number of areas had I just submitted a little bit to his wisdom. But I thought it showed weakness. I don’t know what it is about us Italian men, but we think signs of weakness are not to be tolerated. Maybe it’s men in general or maybe it was just the way that I was, I don’t know, but I was always attempting to be the tough one, stoic and unbending. I now have come to realize that there are many different types of “tough guys”. I want to be tough like him. My way was the wrong way dad and I’d give everything I own to be able to tell you that to your face. Sorry it took me so long to truly understand what you were talking about.
Mom, thanks for everything you planted inside me so many years ago. This new spurt of growth promises to take me in directions I’ve never dreamed possible. I love you very much and thank you for all of you efforts over the years. I’m glad your still here to share this with me and I can’t wait to talk with you when I get home.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Viva la Mexico
I forgot to mention that there has been a convention of bankers here this weekend and a note slipped under our door advised us that the “festivities” would be going on until 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning. I’m on the first floor facing the ocean and the courtyard just below our balcony is where the live bands have been setting up. I was actually so tired Friday night that the music did not prevent me from sleeping. I fell asleep in my clothes, on top of the covers and don’t think I ever even rolled over. I stayed up studying last night so I can not honestly say whether all of the fireworks would have woken me up, but man were they loud! Viva la Mexico! Under different circumstances I would have a Margarita with them and just stay up but that first class comes awfully early in the morning and I’m glad the “festivities” ends on Sunday.
Martha showed up today and it was good to see a familiar face from home. For those that do not know, Martha Williams operates the Bikram Studio on Lyndale in Minneapolis. Someone told me that part of her session here would be teaching and being critiqued by Craig afterwards on her performance. Now, throughout my life I have always seemed to be the last to know extracurricular stuff like this and I don’t even know if it’s true, but it’s somehow comforting to know that even she is being analyzed in this setting and no one gets a free pass. I have a funny feeling she’s not quite as concerned about memorization as am I! I look forward to taking some of her classes in this new atmosphere. It really is cool to have such a variety of teachers to listen to and learn from. Everyone has a different style and it seems to me that those who allow their own personality to shine through and connect with people are the teachers that have the best classes. I hope to accomplish that someday as an instructor.
More anatomy and dialogue studies are on the agenda for today as I prepare for an anatomy test tomorrow. After studying a bit last night I have concluded that I will do well tomorrow on the test and should not allow myself to get to overly concerned. I’m a couple of postures ahead with the dialogue but the faster we begin to perform them the quicker I will need to keep memorizing. I see some late nights in my future but I think study buddies will be plentiful as many are scrambling to stay ahead of the curve. Even the ones I thought I had a grasp on have disappeared from the forefront of my memory as the whirlwind that is teacher training sucks me into its vortex. I’ve put my faith in the process and have let go of all of the day-to-day concerns about the minutia. Upon reflection, letting go and relaxing a bit is something I need to work on in all aspects of my life.
I ate well again today and had a nap in between bouts of medication and memorization. The cold seems to have settled in my chest and I now sound worse than I actually feel. I have some deep sounding pipes at the moment and my voice wears out rather quickly, but a couple of classes should clear my congestion up. Naturally, it’s worse first thing in the morning after being on my back all night but after the first class things loosen up. I’m hoping to have cleared this hurdle by midweek and other than the way I sound, I actually feel pretty good.
I had a hamburger today at a restaurant and I imagine had someone been watching me they would have described me eating this burger like your dog does when you sneak something to him under the table. A little bit of a head jerk, then some lip smacking, then that tongue that cleans like your car’s windshield wipers. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, but I could not get over how good that meat tasted to me. I was actually asked earlier in the week if I had been having any unusual cravings and my answer was a quick no. This of course as I was sopping up the Kikkoman’s soy sauce I had put onto my broccoli with a croissant as if it were liquid gold. I’m eating what sounds good and what my body craves. My guess is that I have lost about 10 pounds so far. I just have to continue to eat and drink enough so I don’t repeat the cramping episode I encountered earlier in week one. I didn’t quite eat the volume of food I did last Sunday but still feel as if I ate enough. Good sleeps tonight without the live band outside my window and week 3 will commence in 7 hours and 30 minutes.
Martha showed up today and it was good to see a familiar face from home. For those that do not know, Martha Williams operates the Bikram Studio on Lyndale in Minneapolis. Someone told me that part of her session here would be teaching and being critiqued by Craig afterwards on her performance. Now, throughout my life I have always seemed to be the last to know extracurricular stuff like this and I don’t even know if it’s true, but it’s somehow comforting to know that even she is being analyzed in this setting and no one gets a free pass. I have a funny feeling she’s not quite as concerned about memorization as am I! I look forward to taking some of her classes in this new atmosphere. It really is cool to have such a variety of teachers to listen to and learn from. Everyone has a different style and it seems to me that those who allow their own personality to shine through and connect with people are the teachers that have the best classes. I hope to accomplish that someday as an instructor.
More anatomy and dialogue studies are on the agenda for today as I prepare for an anatomy test tomorrow. After studying a bit last night I have concluded that I will do well tomorrow on the test and should not allow myself to get to overly concerned. I’m a couple of postures ahead with the dialogue but the faster we begin to perform them the quicker I will need to keep memorizing. I see some late nights in my future but I think study buddies will be plentiful as many are scrambling to stay ahead of the curve. Even the ones I thought I had a grasp on have disappeared from the forefront of my memory as the whirlwind that is teacher training sucks me into its vortex. I’ve put my faith in the process and have let go of all of the day-to-day concerns about the minutia. Upon reflection, letting go and relaxing a bit is something I need to work on in all aspects of my life.
I ate well again today and had a nap in between bouts of medication and memorization. The cold seems to have settled in my chest and I now sound worse than I actually feel. I have some deep sounding pipes at the moment and my voice wears out rather quickly, but a couple of classes should clear my congestion up. Naturally, it’s worse first thing in the morning after being on my back all night but after the first class things loosen up. I’m hoping to have cleared this hurdle by midweek and other than the way I sound, I actually feel pretty good.
I had a hamburger today at a restaurant and I imagine had someone been watching me they would have described me eating this burger like your dog does when you sneak something to him under the table. A little bit of a head jerk, then some lip smacking, then that tongue that cleans like your car’s windshield wipers. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, but I could not get over how good that meat tasted to me. I was actually asked earlier in the week if I had been having any unusual cravings and my answer was a quick no. This of course as I was sopping up the Kikkoman’s soy sauce I had put onto my broccoli with a croissant as if it were liquid gold. I’m eating what sounds good and what my body craves. My guess is that I have lost about 10 pounds so far. I just have to continue to eat and drink enough so I don’t repeat the cramping episode I encountered earlier in week one. I didn’t quite eat the volume of food I did last Sunday but still feel as if I ate enough. Good sleeps tonight without the live band outside my window and week 3 will commence in 7 hours and 30 minutes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)