Week 7!!

The heat is ON! Holy beejesus. We got a break on Memorial Day, we had the morning class and then Bikram gave us the rest of the day off. (Did hell freeze over and I missed it?!) But, as karma will have it, the rest of the week was one long torture session! The weather in Vegas has finally caught up to the season and we had our first really hot week. It was in the high 90′s, low 100′s all week and the room reflected the increase with enthusiasm. The heat is always running now, they don’t turn it off at all because they can’t compensate for the wind or the night temperatures since it’s a tent. I think the average temp in the tent this week was around 118 degrees and about 80 percent humidity. The misters they’re using are obviously pretty effective! I now know what I look like as an eggplant! Lots of barfing, cramping and supreme unhappiness going on among the yogis! Twice a day at those levels is pretty hellacious, I’ve resorted to keeping a bottle of ice chips for my mouth or else I drink too much water and get nauseous. I still haven’t left the room but it’s taken serious effort to keep my mind from winning the battle!

Posture clinics moved along very quickly this week. We got through the spine strengthening series and all the way to Camel, which is an impressive pace to say the least. The postures are shorter so they go quicker, but the stress level gets a little higher since you have less time to memorize. It turned out to be great fun actually because the more tired and physically exhausted people got the more uninhibited and open they became! This led to a lot of laughter and great energy exchanges! Almost but not quite at manic level. Any opportunity to blow off some energy gets made the most of, that is for sure! I’ve gotten really attached to my group. (GROUP 7!!) As time goes by you watch each person progress and get better, have breakdowns, cry uncontrollably, totally go blank, practice their vocal range, and generally make fools out of themselves. It’s a tremendous bonding experience, you have seen them at their best and at their very worst. It’s amazing how much a little vulnerability will bring a group together!

I’m feeling incredibly tired but still happy. I’m constantly needing sleep but when I get the chance on the weekend I can’t go to bed early and I never sleep past 8 in the morning! Ugh. I’ve lost a lot of my appetite so I have to force myself to eat enough. I eat lots of small things all day, there’s no way I can eat a full meal. I’m really homesick still but the end is in sight now so I think I’ll be fine. My body doesn’t seem to be as sore as some peoples’ but my knees are still very unhappy! I guess that will be the case until I can give them some consecutive days off to recover. I think I’ll try to take 5 days off when I get home and not do any yoga. Hopefully that will let my body rest and recuperate a little bit. It’s amazing how beat up you can get just doing yoga twice a day! I guess maybe you could do hippie yoga twice a day and be okay but 99 consecutive Bikram classes is definitely a body abuser. I know now that there is NO way I could have really prepared myself physically for this training. I did 6 classes a week for a couple of months before I came and I truly believe that was the most “ready” I could have been. I was in good shape, getting enough rest at night but pushing myself pretty hard in class each day. There’s no way you could do yoga twice a day before you got here and then get through the 9 week schedule. You’d be way too tired and would probably fall apart physically in the 4th week! I’m glad I listened to my husband when I was preparing for those 3 months before, his training philosophy was absolutely right!!

I can’t believe I only have 2 weeks left! One more hard week and then week 9 is just the yoga and lots of winding down. It’s mostly demonstrations and easier stuff. It will be really fun to get to graduation and the inevitable celebration! After living in a hotel room for 9 weeks I will gladly take out the vacuum and go back to my daily life! Tonight I’m psyching myself up for another hot week of fun and excitement…..

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