This morning I took my last class at Vina. I will miss this place. It has been my home for a week, and has been wonderfully relaxing post-terremoto.
Like the last couple of days, class was busy, and tough in parts. Vivi has a great teaching style; relaxed and cracking jokes with students. She can also be tough when needed though. I saw her tell a guy off for trying to leave the room yesterday :)
I made it through the last six days (and six classes) not drinking in class from the start of Pranayama to the end of Khapavati. There were only two points when I wanted it. Sometime after rabbit the last two days. I resisted though, and the 'want' went away.
An observation about Vina studio. The ceiling is really great for Bikram. It is white with tiny scattered black dots all over it. They may be in some kind of pattern, but it looks quite random. The dots are so tiny they look a little like woodworm, but they aren't! It was so perfect for meditating when lying face-up in Savasana. The best ceiling ever! I would pick a dot and just focus on that during each Savasana. That definitely helped with the focus this week.
Vina and it's students are going to be missed by me. The atmosphere at the studio is very chilled out, and people are friendly. One guy is going to Teacher Training. I found out today that he and Vivi have been doing double classes every day for the last two months so he can prepare! Now I feel bad as mid-week I said I wanted to do a second class, and then the last three days one class was enough for me, so every day I said I was too tired to do another. After hearing he had been doing doubles for that last two months I have no sympathy for myself!
We just arrived back in Santiago, and are staying one night until our flight to Bogota, Colombia tomorrow. I saw a while ago that a studio in Bogota would open this month, but have not been able to find any information since. Javier is going to look into it, as he may know someone who knows something about it. Fingers crossed!...
Saturday, 6 March 2010
You are stronger than you think you are
I stopped writing this blog because I was about to leave the UK to go traveling for 7 months round South and Central America. My thought at the time was that I would be doing very little yoga, and that the times I would get to do it, it would be so tough and I would be so out of practice and shape, that I would not have anything to write about...I would be channeling all my energy into just surviving a class!
This week I've had the opportunity to practise every day for the last 5 days, and every single class, I've had all these thoughts about things I was inspired to write about! I've had to scribble into notebooks after class to get some of these thoughts down, but some of the thoughts are probably lost (for now).
This week I've just been having the most amazing classes. Some tough, some (relatively) easygoing, but I've loved every single one. It hasn't been a struggle to go to class because I've appreciated so much that I've had the opportunity to practise every day. I've been traveling for 2 months now, and have only had access to Bikram studios in three places I've been. I also thought it would be nice to write something about my different experiences in each of those studios.
I arrived at Vina Del Mar one day after the huge earthquake in Chile. We had meant to arrive one day earlier, but there was no transport, and it wasn't safe to travel on the roads in the immediate 24 hours that followed the quake. Having been on the road for 2 months, I was really needing some yoga, and as Vina had a beach, we decided to go there to chill out for a few days.
I was desperate for some yoga. Even more so from the fact that all the studios in Santiago seemed to be closed after the earthquake. A shame, because it was one of the few places with Bikram studios in places I would be visiting. However it's not surprising they were closed. Santiago was pretty much dead the day after. We walked around it for about four hours, and there were barely any restaurants or shops open. There was very little damage from the earthquake in Santiago though, aside from mostly cosmetic stuff. It's built to withstand earthquakes. I was surprised and impressed by that.
So all that, not to mention the trauma of actually experiencing an 8.8 earthquake (actually it was 7 in Santiago) meant I was seriously in need of some yoga. The day we arrived in Vina I saw that the studio there was closed, but repoening the next day.
I had not been to a studio for 2-3 weeks by that point, although I had practised to the CD a few times, with minimal or no heat. My expectation was that it would be tough. Very tough. Physically and mentally. As it turned out, I was craving the yoga so much, that from the second I stepped in the studio on the first day, I was so excited about practising, that I had an amazing, high energy class.
For the first three days there were only between 4 and maybe 8-10 people in the classes. An after-effect of the earthquake. I breezed through those classes. Probably I was helped by the climate here, which in summer is hot but dry. I struggle in high humidity, and this was not too high.
The last two days have been tougher. More people have been in the classes (20+) but I have still loved every minute. From the start, I went into class deciding to focus only on breath and meditation, as I could not rely on being able to perform to my best physical ability after a lot of time out of the studio (it was not just for a few weeks before Vina, but on and off for 2 months). I think this had a great effect on my practise, as I was so focused throughout each class. Vivi, the studio owner has even commented on my focus and concentration. A by-product of this is that I have been holding Standing Bow most days for each entire set, which is something I have virtually never been able to do!
Not to say that physically I am where I was before I left home. But I am not so far off. And it takes me only a couple of classes to feel back to normal (or close to it) again. My main concern before leaving was that it would be so hard to get back into the routine of daily practice and where I was, but I have proved to myself that it is not as bad as I thought!
Aside from the yoga, we came to Vina to relax, and have been able to do this in bucketloads. Each day has just been yoga and the beach for me...it's perfect. I've also been able to eat the healthy food that I like. The funny thing is that I was discouraged from coming to Vina by a Chilean in Santiago, because he thought it was ugly and did not like the beach. But I've had the best time here. One person's elephant is another person's butterfly!
I've had so many thoughts the whole week about things I wanted to write about, but today in yoga something came so clearly to me. I came into this week of yoga with expectations about how tough it would be, and because I focused purely on breath and concentration, I had the best week! It surpassed all expectations and I really love Vina!
This week I've had the opportunity to practise every day for the last 5 days, and every single class, I've had all these thoughts about things I was inspired to write about! I've had to scribble into notebooks after class to get some of these thoughts down, but some of the thoughts are probably lost (for now).
This week I've just been having the most amazing classes. Some tough, some (relatively) easygoing, but I've loved every single one. It hasn't been a struggle to go to class because I've appreciated so much that I've had the opportunity to practise every day. I've been traveling for 2 months now, and have only had access to Bikram studios in three places I've been. I also thought it would be nice to write something about my different experiences in each of those studios.
I arrived at Vina Del Mar one day after the huge earthquake in Chile. We had meant to arrive one day earlier, but there was no transport, and it wasn't safe to travel on the roads in the immediate 24 hours that followed the quake. Having been on the road for 2 months, I was really needing some yoga, and as Vina had a beach, we decided to go there to chill out for a few days.
I was desperate for some yoga. Even more so from the fact that all the studios in Santiago seemed to be closed after the earthquake. A shame, because it was one of the few places with Bikram studios in places I would be visiting. However it's not surprising they were closed. Santiago was pretty much dead the day after. We walked around it for about four hours, and there were barely any restaurants or shops open. There was very little damage from the earthquake in Santiago though, aside from mostly cosmetic stuff. It's built to withstand earthquakes. I was surprised and impressed by that.
So all that, not to mention the trauma of actually experiencing an 8.8 earthquake (actually it was 7 in Santiago) meant I was seriously in need of some yoga. The day we arrived in Vina I saw that the studio there was closed, but repoening the next day.
I had not been to a studio for 2-3 weeks by that point, although I had practised to the CD a few times, with minimal or no heat. My expectation was that it would be tough. Very tough. Physically and mentally. As it turned out, I was craving the yoga so much, that from the second I stepped in the studio on the first day, I was so excited about practising, that I had an amazing, high energy class.
For the first three days there were only between 4 and maybe 8-10 people in the classes. An after-effect of the earthquake. I breezed through those classes. Probably I was helped by the climate here, which in summer is hot but dry. I struggle in high humidity, and this was not too high.
The last two days have been tougher. More people have been in the classes (20+) but I have still loved every minute. From the start, I went into class deciding to focus only on breath and meditation, as I could not rely on being able to perform to my best physical ability after a lot of time out of the studio (it was not just for a few weeks before Vina, but on and off for 2 months). I think this had a great effect on my practise, as I was so focused throughout each class. Vivi, the studio owner has even commented on my focus and concentration. A by-product of this is that I have been holding Standing Bow most days for each entire set, which is something I have virtually never been able to do!
Not to say that physically I am where I was before I left home. But I am not so far off. And it takes me only a couple of classes to feel back to normal (or close to it) again. My main concern before leaving was that it would be so hard to get back into the routine of daily practice and where I was, but I have proved to myself that it is not as bad as I thought!
Aside from the yoga, we came to Vina to relax, and have been able to do this in bucketloads. Each day has just been yoga and the beach for me...it's perfect. I've also been able to eat the healthy food that I like. The funny thing is that I was discouraged from coming to Vina by a Chilean in Santiago, because he thought it was ugly and did not like the beach. But I've had the best time here. One person's elephant is another person's butterfly!
I've had so many thoughts the whole week about things I wanted to write about, but today in yoga something came so clearly to me. I came into this week of yoga with expectations about how tough it would be, and because I focused purely on breath and concentration, I had the best week! It surpassed all expectations and I really love Vina!
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