Acrobatics

Yesterday morning, Tuesday (day 3 of yoga, day 6 of my trip), I woke up very stiff again... I have been told to become accustomed to this. There are just more muscles every morning that are added to the list of muscles that are stiff. Yesterday I added the gluteus to the list.

In the yoga practice this morning, we went up to Navasana and we did not have to do any sequence twice or three times as in previous sessions, so it was not so bad.

After breakfast we sat at the pool and then we had a little handstand workshop with Gloria the trapeze artist from Spain. She also showed us a few other tricks like the one in the picture on the left... Gloria is the one I am holding up. That was a lot of fun.
Afterwards, I practiced a little more on the slackline. Alan (not my room-mate Alan), who is a massage therapist, provides massages at a cost of Rs 1,500 for an hour. He does three different types of massages one of them being structural integration. He has a slackline (like a very tight rope) tied up between two trees outside of his hut in which he does the massages. It requires a lot of balance... more so than balancing on a balancing beam in gymnastics, because the rope bounces up and down as well as jumps and shakes from side to side. The day before he had assisted me to get up and walked me along it by letting me hold onto his shoulder while walking on the floor next to me. (It is only about 60 or 70 cm high). I got up onto the slackline by myself now.

After lunch I sat with the two sisters from Norway, Eirin (ballet dancer) and Ingvild (doctor), and Sarah from London, who is Michael's assistant, and Sarah answered some questions on the nuances of the final sequence from Upavishtakonasana to Sethubandhasana. I had not reached that sequence yet in the mornings, but I just listened in... it can only help :-)

In the afternoon from 3 to 6 we had another little workshop and everyone was very excited about this one because it was on jump backs and jump through, the action performed when moving from one seated asana to the next and I think Michael said that it happens 52 times in the full primary series.... no wonder we are all so tired. We all want to look as graceful and as smooth as Michael when we jump back and jump through, but for some of us it looks more like a baby that has just started learning to crawl and has fallen and tries to pick itself up... very very clumsy. The session was really fantastic. He called the session "The secret of Bandhas" and we are not allowed to divulge it to anyone who has not attended the session. :-)
So now I will publish it here on the web ... no, not really, but the very first thing he made us do was hold our knees into our chest and lift the feet off the floor, then let go of the hands and keep the knees up against the chest... that really meant using the core muscles and I can use this in my pilates classes in future as well.

The second point he made is that we must place the hands forward when placing the hands on the floor, which will allow the pelvis to be picked up easier with less brute force.

The next thing he did was dispel the myth that peoples arms are too short by showing us the shoulder position, which should be the same in downward dog stretch and is the same that we teach in pilates. My biggest problem is not flexing the feet enough, so the toes always catch on my wrists when moving the torso back.
The next point Michael made was that people give up, ie: they stop using the bandhas to hold everything up and sit on the floor as soon as their feet touch the floor. He suggested that even when the feet touch the floor, you continue holding everything up and sliding it along on the floor as best you can. Then we all practiced a little. We finished with Pranayama (practicing breath control) outside of the shala.

Today I woke up with a very sore uddiyana bandha (transverse abdominus) muscle from the afternoon session yesterday. In the morning session I progressed up to baddhakonasana and started the finishing sequence with urdhya danurasana (the first back bend). The I left SA, I had visited my chiropractor, because I had prolapsed one of my disks between L4 and 5. But I had completely forgotton about that and went into it without thinking. I was more worried about doing it right so that Michael would let me continue with other back bends... This was however not to be, as my heels were always sliding in and creating duck feet. Michael insisted that I get it right and so I could not move on, which was a good thing because I realised later that the muscles around my spine had stiffened up. The other students said that they had experienced similar stiffness the first few mornings they got into that position. I have done this particular asana before, but I think the environment is just causing me to push that much harder. I actually got my head on the floor and heels off the floor in Kurmasana this morning, which was an awesome improvement for me.

After supper we had movie night and Robert actually had made some popcorn. The movie was a DVD that Alan my room mate had brought from home, which was a copy of "The secret". I have put a link on the right hand side for anyone interested. It was very good and is more of a documentary about how you can attract the things you want in life by visualizing the things you want.

I was last out of the Shala other than Michael and Sarah who start their practice after all of us students have gone through to the finishing sequence. I then joined Iman, Gloria and Leenah who went to the market to finish buying gifts as they were going back home this weekend. Iman was showing off her bargaining skills while buying bangles and spices. She was very good, but in my opinion sometimes pushed a little too hard, so that eventually the vendor refused to sell. Leenah and I bought a white sheet embroidered with silk that can be used as a bed spread or table cloth. Leenah is Indian and speaks Tamil and Hindi, so I let her do the bargaining but Iman and I helped. We eventually got them for Rs 250 each (asking price 800).
Then we rushed back to get some lunch and after lunch we headed to Villa Blanche, which is a little coffee shop run by a german lady. She had german bretzels, cake, cookies like the ones my mom makes for christmas so I was really in my element :-). Alan introduced me to the Lemon Lassi, which tastes like liquid cheese cake!!! WOW.

After that I finally was able to rent my own scooter and I drove to a "hair salon". (Before I left for India, I had my hair cut to 2 mm length.) I paid Rs 50 to have my hair shorn down to zero millimetres (but that is not as close as a shave). In Mysuru I will have it shaved off completely, but I will transition slowly I thought as the sun is very strong here.

After supper, Iman, Leenah and I went to Baga to the spiritual Music Festival. Heeyam was the band playing tonight. The band consisted of 2 Indian men and 2 Israeli men. They sang songs in arabic, hindi and hebrew and I enjoyed it very much.

Becoming Vegetarian

So after the morning yoga yesterday, we had a yummy breakfast (porridge/oatmeal, muesli, fruit, bread & jam) and I baked in the sun at the pool deck. Later Gloria came and showed us some stuff she does as a trapeze artist. She has tied a long silk cloth to a tree branch about 5 or 6 metres high up. So some of us climbed up the silk and did some of the tricks she showed us, which was a lot of fun, but silk can also give you rope burn on the hands and feet!!!

Then we had lunch, which was raw food as usual, but Robert stunned us all by making a cold lasagna dish without pasta or meat. He cut the edges off a corgette to make it rectangular like a box and then sliced it into pieces that look like the flat pasta used in lasagna and used that as layering between a lot of other greens. Very nice!!!
For desert at supper time he made a base made from dates and hazelnut pieces and put that into the sun for a few hours to harden. He then blended bananas and avocadoes and poured melted chocolate into that while blending. He then poured that onto the base he made earlier and put that into the fridge to set: Voila, one healthy desert made without any butter or sugar. Tonight, we had a desert made with carrots, raisins, cashew nuts, mild and something that I think is like butter. Also extremely nice.
Other dishes we had for supper and lunch included red spinach with sweet potatoe... very good, cold coconut soup... it was more like juice to me, but I enjoyed it; and the usual other stuff like dhal, rice and other vegetables and lentils.
So you can see the food is extremely healthy and yes, vegetarian. This seems to be a big thing in the yoga community. I came across this at the Bikram studio as well. Apparently people smell differently depending on whether they eat meat or not. So that is one of the reasons why they don't eat meat and of course they say it is also better for animals :-) . I am not a big red meat eater, but I eat a lot of chicken and have never even considered becoming vegetarian, but I am abstaining from meat for the next few weeks definitely. Coming to India, I knew that there would not be lots of meat available, so I packed some biltong, but have decided to give that a miss for now. That will test my will power :-)

After lunch yesterday we said good-bye to Sally and Nick and saw them off. Then we sat around for a while talking about the Michael (not with Michael) and about Pattabhi Jois and his family tree, about students that have taken yoga back to the west since the 70's, the books they wrote etc. I have put some of these links on the blog on the right for you to visit if you are interested.

I spoke to Michael about his plans as they seemed to have changed from what was advertised on his website. I had planned my plans around that and had now become aware that Michael was going to be back in SA for a workshop in the beginning of March when I would still be in India. He confirmed that the plans had changed and that he would go directly to Mysuru for 2 weeks, instead of taking a weeks break and then going for 4 weeks to Mysuru (which also my plan). So then I phoned the shala in Mysuru and spoke to Saraswati, the daughter of PJ (that is what I shall call him respectfully from now on :-)), to confirm that there would be space. She asked me if I had written a letter and said it would be fine. I then borrowed a scooter and rode to Anjura (smaller than a village!) to a travel agent and booked myself on the same flight as Michael Gannon. So far, there are 5 of us going to Mysuru, which is Michael, 2 staff from Purple Valley, Mayra and Lori, Leena and myself.

The first few Yoga sessions

On Saturday night I joined some people to go the the night market in Arpora. You need to realise that Goa is not like the rest of India. It is real touristy here and most of the stalls and all the foodstalls seem to be run by westerners. But the market was really nice and it was huge. There are hammocks for sale, simple jewellery made coconut and wood as well as some very nice jewellery made from sea shells, silk, kashmir, wood and stone carvings, picture collages, woven handbags, t-shirts, towels, dresses, and lots of other things. Lots of the girls bought dresses, which were so nice that when they got home and showed off, other women quickly called taxis and headed off to the market.

Sunday morning was my first Yoga class. I went to the Shala at about 7:15 (half an hour early) and watched those that were busy doing their practice. Sally did some awesome back bend work, which she is able to do because of her 7 years of bikram yoga.
Finally it was our turn (the three newcomers) and Michael took us through Surya Namaskara A & B and then into the 6 fundamental standing asanas:
Padangusthasana
Padahastasana
Trikonasana A & B
Parsvakonasana A & B
Prasaritha Padothanasana A to D (breakthrough... actually got my head on the floor today)
Parsvothanasana
The session lasted for about 45 to 50 minutes and ended with Mudra, Padamasana, uttpluthi and savasana. Candice and I were a little disappointed that we did not go further in the primary series. She had been doing Ashtanga daily for the last 6 months and I have been doing it for 3 or 4 years but only once a week until recently. I guess we just have to be patient.
What was really nice is that I learnt exactly when to move, where to exhale and not to move. The most important thing I think is that Ashtanga is a Vinyasa yoga, meaning breath and movement. Never do you hold your breath. I noticed that Candice was holding here breath while jumping back and over breakfast or lunch I mentioned to here and she appreciated my comment. This morning (next day) I noticed that she had consciously changed that. It is nice practicing with her, as her breath is about as long as mine, so we move together nicely. And if I loose focus on my practice, the fact that she is there continuing, forces me to get my focus back.

In India, the ashtanga yoga primary series is not completed if you are not ready to continue past an asana. This is called a gateway pose and you stop at that pose and continue working on it until you have it right. Then you can move on in the series. This forces you to focus on the area that you need to work on.

From talking to others it seems that Pattabhi Jois is going to stop teaching either this year or next year. He is 91 years old and they say that sometimes he falls asleep on you while correcting your position... don't know how true that is :-)
In order to go to guruji, I had to write a letter telling the ashram when I am arriving. I have also heard that the ashram is full and that they are turning people away even if they have written a letter, so I am a little concerned about not doing my planned 4 weeks with guruji which would be a terrible blow to my plans.

I spent some time at the pool in the sun and soon it was time for lunch (already) which was raw food, like salads and fruit.

Yesterday afternoon, we had a session from 3 to 6 in the afternoon. (There is an afternoon session every second day on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.) The session started with us having a Q&A session where we could ask him anything, like why he cut his beard to whether he thinks Ashtanga Yoga could be complimented by another yoga style or pilates (my question). Michael has a great sense of humour.
Then we went through Primary series up to Janushirashasana. We were all sweating like pigs because of the heat. I do not think I sweat here in India doing Ashtanga Yoga, any less than I sweat doing Bikram Yoga in a heated room at 38 to 42 degrees Celsius back home.
After that Michael took us through how to teach Mareechasana A & B and how to help people that are struggling with the posture. Then we took a partner and practiced on each other.

Supper was spicy tomato soup, lentils, beans, brown rice and fruit salad for dessert. After that some of us headed out to a concert, which was 4 guys playing on a sitar, drum, guitar and keyboard... It was a lot of fun, but I must say I was getting very tired.

This morning I woke up and my legs are stiff and my shoulders are a little stiff. I was quite nervous yesterday for the first session and took it very seriously (the way it should be done every day) and that made me have breakthrough... I think the stiffness might be from the stretching... Prasaritha Padothanasana is my weakness and during yesterday's Q&A session, Michael spoke about letting go of what we believe are our limitations (in our mind).

This morning the three of us went through to where we went yesterday by ourselves and then Michael took us through the balancing poses: Uthita Hasta Padangusthasana and Ardhabaddha Padmothasana, through the flowing sequence containing Utkatasana, Veerabhadrasana A & B and then we started with the first two postures in the seated sequence in which both legs are straight, namely Pashimatanasana and Purvatanasana. Then Candice and I did the whole standing sequence again up to the seated sequence where we ended and then finished up like yesterday... that was a hard workout that lasted 1,5 hours...

Arrival at the Yoga Retreat

Sightseeing in Mumbai was ok... did a lot of walking. Because it was Republic Day in India, people were just everywhere. I walked through town and just stood for a while and soaked in the Indian daily life... street vendors, traffic, cows and dogs walking in the roads, festivities etc... Then I walked up Marine Drive to Chowpatty Beach where a lot of Indian families had gone too. On the way I passed a lot of parks and sports grounds and everywhere, they were playing cricket. The beach was crowded and there were many foodstalls next to it. I was getting hungry and decided to buy something.

On the plane to Mumbai the menu was indian food and I was actually expecting a lot worse, but both meals were edible. One meal was lentil dhal with rice and potatoes and the other was eggplant and other vegetables fried in batter, like pakora (chilly bites).
The hostel breakfast was 3 slices of white bread, some jam, a banana and a hard boiled egg, which was fine... nothing to write home about here... literally :-)
Lunch I ended up having a chicken schwarma at a muslim restaurant. Dinner I finally went to an Indian restaurant, but they also served chinese food. I had Kashmiri Naan, which is Naan (thick indian bread, with a distinctive teardrop shape from being stuck to the side of the Tandoor) with a topping similar to a Pizza. I had chickoo fruit juice and also saw some other fruit on the menu I did not know. The juice was alright... looked like mud :-). After dinner I went to the fruit stalls outside (this is 23:30) and asked them about the chickoo and the other fruit called Musambi. Chickoo is about the size of a potato and is brown like mud with a skin like a kiwi. The Musambi looks like an orange but yellow and is a citrus fruit. I found out today that it is a sweet lime.

Well back to the beach where I had wandered off to. I carefully looked at what others were eating and how the food was prepared. I finally decided I was going to try one of the dishes on offer and I made sure I said not to make it hot. The cook took these two vegetable patties (prepared before hand), stuck his bare fingers in them to squish them up :-(, then put tomato and onion on top, and added two sauces on top. I was worried I was going to have to eat with my dirty fingers, but luckily he gave me a spoon. It was actually quite nice... although I did worry about the tomatoes having been washed in water... but I did not get sick.

On Saturday, after breakfast I checked out and made my way back to the train station to go to the domestic terminal of the airport. There I learned that the flight was delayed by about an hour, so I sat and read... it definitely is a regular occurence.
In Goa I got picked up by the Yoga retreat taxi and taken to Purple Valley and given my room, which I am sharing with Alan Reid from SA. He has been here 2 weeks already. (Michael Gannon is teaching here for 3 weeks and I am joining him for the last week.) He explained to me that there are different time slots that we get allocated into starting from 6:15. Every 15 minutes a different group arrives and joins the others. The ones who are more advanced start first and continue going as the later groups join in. This gives Michael the opportunity to focus on each group for 15 minutes on their specific area of need.

The retreat is like a little paradise, there are two buildings with rooms in them each with their own shower and toilet. Not extravagant at all, but very nice none the less. One of these buildings also has the kitchen with a big covered open space in front with tables and chairs made from reids, another covered open space next to it with place to sit, but these look more like beds with pillows. Below that are 3 or 4 chalets and then there is a beautiful swimming pool and deck with sturdy deck chairs made from wood and further down is the Yoga shala. I recognise the inside of the Shala from Michael Gannon's video.

The people here are wonderful and the staff are very nice who because they are also so much into the yoga, make you feel that they are guests just like you. I guess there are about 30 to 40 people here and they are so diverse and interesting.
There is Leena, the only indian girl, who used to run a yoga institute in Chennai (Madras) and is going to be running a business making yoga clothes.
There is Alice from the Netherlands who is into meditation.
There is Gloria from Spain who is a Trapeze artist.
Alan my room mate is a uni cyclist. Yes, he rides a cycle with one wheel for a living.
Sally, whom I knew from SA, is the owner of the Bikram Jozi Yoga studio in Thrupps shopping mall and Nick is her fiancee.
Michele is australian and lives in london and I think is a fashion designer.
Candice also arrived today is from California and works for a company making children's clothes.
Robert works in the film industry in Montreal, and took a break and has been the cook for the last 2,5 months here at the retreat. He's cooking skills are excellent. We are eating Indian food, but prepared for the westerner... it is not too hot :-) The food is really very good and I do not think I will be loosing any weight here!!!
That is just some of the people, but there are a few from Sweden and Norway, a few from England, a few from America, but there are very few guys. Nick and Sally are leaving on Monday, so that leaves like 5 guys.

Arrival in India, Mumbai

I left Johannesburg just before noon, and arrived in Mumbai just after midnight, after an 8,5 hour flight on SAA (and a 3,5 hour timezone change). I now have 1 day to do some sight seeing before I go to the Purple Valley Yoga retreat in Goa and start the Yoga.

The first order of the day was to get some Indian Rupees (INR). The exchange rate is 43.4 rupees to a USD, which works out to about INR 5,80 for one ZAR. I got a bit of a fright when the cashier pointed out to me that my new SA passport does not contain my signature so he needed something else to verify my signature... Good thing I took my credit card with!!!

Because I had booked my SAA flight using voyager miles, I was not able to book any connecting flights. Air India does not fly to Goa, Jet Airways does not sell tickets via its website to the general public, and Indian Airlines does not accept international credit cards, so I have been trying to find an open Airline office to book my flight. After walking the International terminal flat, I could not find an office that was either open or that would sell me a ticket.
I then found a bookstore and finally armed myself with an invaluable lonely planet travel guide (I had not had enough time to buy one back home). I sat down and started looking up accomodation options and how to get there best.
I also became aware that today was a public holiday in India, celebrating India's independance from Britain since 1950. I also found out that South Africa is not the only country with over 10 languages recognised in its constitution. India has 23.

Six am I finally decided I better move so miss rush hour. It was still dark (only starts getting light around 7am). I could have taken a taxi for almost INR 400, which would have been fine if I was not travelling alone. But since I prefer to do it like the locals do whenever I travel (and also keep it cheap), I decided to take a rickshaw to the train station and catch a train to town. I had to haggle with the rickshaw drivers and when I still got no joy (The rate in the guide suggested 25 rupees and they wanted to charge me 150), I finally sought the help of a police officer. I landed up paying 50, which I was happy with.
At the train station, I could either get an ordinary ticket for 8 rupees or first class for 78. Since 2nd class is extremely overcrowded and I was carrying all my luggage, 1st class was fine. In town I looked at 2 hotels found in my guide under budget accomodation and the prices for rooms ranged from 700 rupees to 1200 rupees. Again, travelling with company is cheaper because these are always double rooms and there are no single rooms. While walking the streets I met an australian girl who told me she was staying at The Salvation Army for 150 rupees including breakfast (dormitory rooms with bunk beds). This was great and that is where I am staying. As always in a place like this, it is very friendly and hospitable. My room has no glass where the windows are but hey... its hot!!!

Travelling by rickshaw through the dirty streets of Mumbai... yes, the pungent smells, the noise, the queues... I know I am back in India... but I think I will enjoy this time a lot more than last time. I was in India in 1996 for 6 weeks, during which time I travelled further north in Rajastan, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh and then went on to Nepal. I remember that this was the country in which I had the worst culture shock out of all the countries I have travelled so far.
This time I am more prepared, and hopefully also more patient and more tolerant :-)

Businesses here only open around 10 am and after having a 2 hour power nap, I found a very helpful travel agent just around the corner, whom I booked my flight to Goa with for tomorrow. So now the rest of the day can be dedicated to looking at the sights. I am in the Colaba district, which is the far south of Mumbai. My "hotel" is very central which is great.

Going on holiday

Hi all,

Just letting you all know that I am going on another extended holiday… yes, extended … 6 weeks…. Yipppeeee

I am leaving for India tomorrow morning and will be back on the 12^th of March. However, during this trip I will not be doing much traveling … I am going to be doing Ashtanga Yoga twice a day. I have been doing Yoga once or twice a week at the gym for a few years now and have found it to be a great compliment to my Pilates practice. I must thank my yoga instructor Ann Behrend for being such a great teacher. As with anything in life, (even though parents don’t want to believe it), if you have a great teacher, you will enjoy whatever it is you are learning and you will grow, thrive and succeed in the subject / practice.

Last year in October, I attended a 3 day workshop at the Bikram Jozi Yoga studio. Michael Gannon from the US was the teacher and he really inspired me. Michael mentioned he would be teaching in India and also visiting his guru and that we were welcome to join him. So that is how I arrived at this point in my yoga journey…

I am not taking my phone with, I am not taking my laptop with and actually I hope to do some reading in a book which is not a techie book for the first time in many many years. I am going to be reading the book: “Yoga School Dropout”.

It is 4pm and I can’t believe I am still slogging away at work… so many things still to do J A colleague of mine recently said the following and it is so true “If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.”

Anyway, if you’d like to keep up to date with what I am up to, I have created a blog, which I will attempt to post to whenever I have internet connectivity.

The address is: http://andreas-yogaexperience.blogspot.com/

Cheers

Andreas

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