Practicing with Nancy Gilgoff at Purple Valley in Goa

Sunday (18) - "Yoga is self discovery"
Sunday morning on the 18th was our first practice, which was Mysore style (for explanation refer to my blog on my previous trip). Normally, in Mysore though, Sunday practice would be led. We start the practice at 8am every day, which I was unhappy about because I am used to 6am and it means half the day is over when I finish practicing and have breakfast, but I was actually woken up by my alarm clock, which is unusual for me... I normally wake up before my alarm goes off at 5 to get ready for my six o'clock practice. I had decided the night before that I needed to rest and did not do any work, so I did get a good night sleep (approx. 7 hours).

The first thing that Nancy made us do in the shala, was for the right side of the room to face the left side of the room and vice versa. She said this is how guruji made them do it in the early days, and a psychologist had mentioned to her that it creates more of a sense of being a group and when the teacher walks through the class, the teacher becomes part of the group as opposed to being seperate. I think this is a very interesting way of setting up the class and I liked it.
My practice was alright. I just did primary series and left out the drop backs. Nancy actually said that guruji would tell them not to practice the first day after flying, to allow the body to settle, so we should take it easy. I did get some comments from other students that my practice looked beautiful. That is just because I can do jump backs and jump throughs. If I had to compare my practice with that of Jason (he started practicing third series as I was finishing) or Jeff (who practiced with us) I had a long way to go.
Nancy adjusted me in one of the twisting postures and then waited for me to do a "vinyasa" (jump back and jump through) before going into the other side. She later in the discourse told us that the etiquette when a teacher is adjusting you in Mysore style, is to not do the vinyasa, so that the teacher can adjust you in both sides without having to wait and then move on to another student.

I learnt later that primary series is supposed to be nurturing (hard to believe for a beginner :-)) and we are not supposed to be doing fancy stuff in primary. Lots of people have added fancy moves because they have been held back from doing second series for so long. When we jump into a posture and out of a posture we are supposed to have straight legs, except for Triang Mukha Eka Pada Paschimottanasana (one leg folded back forward bend). Nancy is very traditional and does not like people adding any poses to the series.

After breakfast Dr. Vahed gave us an introduction into Ayurveda, a system of traditional medicine native to India. In Sanskrit, the word Ayurveda comprises the words ayus, meaning 'life' and veda, meaning 'science'. He talked about moksha (liberation) from the cycle of death and rebirth, but I have forgotten since I am writing this 2 weeks after the event. Traditional beliefs hold that humans possess a unique constellation of Doshas (biological humors), namely vata (wind/spirit/air), pitta (bile) and kapha (phlegm). In ordre to determine what kind of person you are, i.e.: what qualities you have more of (vata, pitta, kapha) you fill out a questionaire and an ayurveda practitionist will perform some tests. Basically, vata people are dry and slow, whereas the pitta people are more fiery and energetic (I guess this is where I fit in :-)) and kapha people are more grounded moist people. Ayurveda stresses a balance of these three doshas, and imbalances are cured using oil, ghee and honey.
Nancy told us that a vata person should practice after between 9 and 12 in the morning or between 6 and 8 in the evening (now it makes sense that we are practicing so late with Nancy, since she is vata), a pitta person should practice first thing in the morning to get rid of the energy, and a kapha person can practice anytime. According to guruji, the ashtanga vinyasa yoga practice is more suited to the pitta person??? ( I need to check this fact.)

After lunch I went to the german bakery with Sylvia and two girls from the UK. At the bakery we met the four people from Turkey. I saw flyers of the brahmani yoga studio, where they offer "Superhero Acro Yoga Flow" on Thursday evenings, which was interesting to me because I am trying to organise an Acro Yoga teacher to come to South Africa to do a workshop with us. As fate would have it, the couple (girl from germany and guy from Spain) who teach the class actually came to our table because Can was organising for them to go to Turkey. I of course found out when their schedule would be open to come to SA.

At 17:00 we had our first discourse session with Nancy. We began with some breathing exercises to determine if our breath was longer on the inhale or the exhale. Most people's breath is longer on the exhale. Ideally they should be equal. She then talked about the placement of the tongue in the mouth, which was quite interesting because if you place the tongue correctly, (don't place the tip of the tongue, but just behind that, on to the ridge of the palate behind the top teeth) the throat seems to open up more and it becomes easier to make your breath audible, especially the inhale. However, she said the guruji never ever used the word ujjayi when teaching the breath to them and she thinks that that was brought in by westerners. The breath should be audible to ourselves but not like darth vader!

Then she began speaking about energy flows and she told us the story of when her dog died, that she could see the soul leaving through the eyes. Apparently in human beings the soul leaves via the armpits if we have not reached an enlightened state and we are reborn. When we have reached moksha, our soul leaves the body via the crown chakra. She then asked us to down dog and asked us if we were pushing from the shoulder into the ground. We should be pushing down from the elbows into the palms, but the feeling in the armpits should be that of pulling inwards. In other words, when we do our yoga practice, our energy should not be escaping our bodies. (Sharath mentioned two weeks later at the first conference I attended in Mysore, that we should not do yoga outside, because the air will take our energy. I guess this will be difficult for a non-yogi to understand, but I have tried to practice yoga outside and the energy is very different.)
She then compared this to Iyengar practice of extending out of the arm when going into trikonasana. She said in Ashtanga, we don't extend forward, but move straight into the posture and we grab hold of the big toe, in order to create a mudra - an energy circle.
When we do Virabhadrasana II (warrior pose 2), we should have the feeling of drawing our arms inwards even though we are extending the arms out. To me this makes sense, since what you are actually doing is tightening the muscles around the shoulder joint, using a subtle energetic feeling.
She also made us aware that we should not come to Namaste (bent arms) between sun salutations. We should keep the arms strong and straight to keep the energy flowing strong.
She said that the bhandas help us seal the energy inside our bodies. When we practice we want to slow the breath down and keep drawing our energy inwards, otherwise we age faster.
Later during the course, it became even more evident to me how important this energy circle was in Ashtanga. She said that the extension of the spine going into Paschimottanasana (forward bend) for instance, comes from other styles of yoga. Guruji said first put the forehead onto the knee to create the mudra, and then start extending forward. The other effect this has is to enable the student to engage uddiyana bandha more. (See later).

Practicing with Nancy Gilgoff at Purple Valley in Goa

Nancy mentioned that the asanas wring our body out, and the final resting posture is a healing or receiving posture. She also seems to have learnt a lot from a spiritual teacher called Baba Hari Das, who when asked if one should learn from one teacher or many, he replied, "Bee's do not make honey from only one flower!". This was relevant for me, as I had chosen not spend two weeks with either Nancy or Lino, but 1 week with each. I have been questioning this decision often, because each teacher needs some time to get to know you, so you can progress much more if you stay with one teacher for two weeks rather than just one. When I had to prepare to leave Kovalam, see Thursday the 29th, I was even considering giving up one week in Mysore, to be able to study an extra week with Lino.

Day 2: Monday (19) - moving into second series - Nadi Sodhana
Today I was still a little stiff from travelling. I completed primary series and then went into second series as far as Kapotasana (Dove pose - on your knees bend backwards, put your head between your feet and grab your heels - well that is what you're supposed to do!) as this is how far I practice when I practice by myself at home. I also knew the next posture, but Nadia at home had told me that I was not ready for it, so I waited for Nancy, and she gave me the next posture, Supta Vajrasana (Sleeping Thunderbolt pose - sitting in lotus and crossing the arms behind your back grabbing hold of your toes and then leaning back and placing your head on the floor). I did not know it, but this pose was going to be my gateway pose with Lino Miele (see post for the 27th Jan). Nancy told me later that I should always do all the way up to Supta Laguvajrasana (not leave it out) as this really opens up the back and releases the back after the three previous back bends.
When guruji taught her and David, the first time in India, guruji did not give them back bends until the end of second series, whereas these days in Mysore, you are not allowed to move into second series until you are able to come back up from dropping back by yourself. Nancy and David were with guruji for four months the first time and they used to do yoga twice a day and by the end of the four months, they were doing both primary and second series, so they moved through primary and into second very quickly. Manju Jois, David Williams and Nancy still do not teach back bending until the end of second series.

I spent most of Monday morning frantically finishing up the document I had been doing for work, which I had also spent most of the last night on.

In the afternoons discourse session, Nancy talked more about the breath and how it speeds up when we are in difficult postures, or on days we don't feel like practicing. She then moved on to diet and mentioned that when we practice in the mornings, we are not burning off the calories from the dinner the night before, but the lunch from the day before. She told us that she was a vegetarian when she started yoga with guruji and he force-fed her according to ayurveda, which by the way does not decree vegetarianism. Apparently papaya (paw-paw) is the most heating food on the planet and should not be eaten by women who menstruating or are pregnant. A cooling diet is not for vata people, but more for pitta people. Kapha people can eat anything they want. Cooling food includes, coconut and curd, whereas yoghurt (west) is heating. Fasting is not only not recommended, but is considered dangerous, especially if practicing yoga. Garlic is bad for the joints, is not good to eat every day and should be used for medicinal purposes.
Chinese medicine and ayurveda do not promote eating too much raw food. Nancy said it takes twice as much energy to digest raw food than cooked food and it is a fad in the west right now.

She then told us of a three year old boy who wanted to show the adults that he was going to do yoga. He stood on his mat, then adjusted the mat, stood upright again, looked around and adjusted the mat again etc and he never actually did a vinyasa. The adult yogi's laughed, but realised that the child was actually imitating them... She told us that we should not allow ourselves these moments during our practice to wipe the sweat etc, because what we are actually doing is coming out of our practice. Just do the posture without thinking so much. That is actually good advice because so often we struggle to get into a posture because we fear it!

Nancy then asked us to do uddiyana kriya, which is supposed to be very good for digestion. This is just exhaling completely and then pulling the abdominal wall in and upwards as much as possible, holding for ten counts and then releasing and doing it three times. She told us that guruji was always very secretive about something and would never teach her, but would teach other women. Only when she was past menopause, did she find out that it was nauli kriya, which guruji does not recommend for women who wanted to become pregnant as it apparently has a shredding effect on the uterus.

She finished by asking us if we had seen the 1938 video on YouTube of Krishnamacharya doing yoga asanas. She said that they looked sloppy, which we agreed with. The point was that in Ashtanga, there is less importance placed on the posture, but what is important is what is happening on the inside of your body, the breath, the dristi (focus) and the bandhas. At the end of the video, Krishnamacharya does some pretty amazing uddiyana kriya.

Day 3: Tuesday (20) - women and ashtanga
In today's practice Nancy progressed me through Bakasana (Crow pose) A & B, Bharadvajasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana (two twists) and Eka Pada Sirsasana (One Foot behind the head pose). Normally a teacher would never give more than two poses per day, but Nancy knew that I did not have a teacher at home, and that I was only staying for one week, so she advanced me quickly. She was also very impressed that I was able to do the postures straight away, such as Bakasana B which you jump into from down dog. I was shaky because of all the sweat running down my arms, but I held it. When I do my practice, it is hard to see what anybody else is doing as I try to be very focused, but I have noticed that there are a number of other students doing part of second series as well.

In the discourse in the afternoon, Nancy began by telling us that each series of postures in Ashtanga Yoga has a different energy:
- Primary becomes nurturing (hard to believe for a beginner :-)). It is not meant to be an advanced series, and we are not supposed to be doing fancy stuff in primary.
- Intermediate becomes emotional. The liver, which holds anger, is cleansed, so you might get angry during or after your practice.
- Advanced A works more on the channels, so it becomes electrifying.
We should keep the series pure and should not add postures or jump directly into a posture and out of a posture in primary (always straighten both legs first, except for Triang Mukha Eka Pada Paschimottanasana (one leg folded back forward bend)). Lots of people have added fancy moves because they have been held back from doing second series for so long. Nancy is very traditional and does not like people adding any poses to the series. She also said that Sharath does not allow people to jump through with parallel legs, but wants them to be crossed because this requires more bandha control and uses less momentum.

In one of my practices, Nancy adjusted my hips in Parivrita Trikonasana (revolved triangle) by pulling them back and upwards. I struggled with the concept for a few days, but basically she was saying that when moving into the pose or into another pose like Paschimottanasana (forward bend), we should be protecting the hamstrings and sacrum and keep the hips rotated back, put the forehead onto the legs and then extend forward. It also allows us to engage uddiyana bandha more. (The dristi is an eye exercise and helps focus the mind. We don't actually need to see the toes.)
I relate the uddiyana bandha to the transverse abdominus muscle, which we use heavily in Pilates too. Nancy touches people four fingers below the belly button as a tactile queue to help them understand from where to engage it. It should not just be a sucking back, but also an internal lifting or pulling up feeling. She said that this point is exactly where women are cut when a scecaerian section is performed.

She then told us that she used to have 10 day periods and guruji would not allow her to practice for the entire ten days, nor would he even talk to her. (Nowadays, the rule in India is not to practice for three days and in the west, woman are just told not to do any inversions, however, since Ashtanga is such a vigorous practice using a lot of upward lifting of the bandhas, opposing the natural flow of menstruation, and remembering that even down dog is an inversion, I believe it is quite dangerous to practice during menstruation). Nancy complained to guruji's wife who quickly responded with, "shhhh, shhhh". She found out that it was actually a matriarchal society, in that the women started the whole thing. The women stayed in a separate room in which the male children were not even allowed. They did not do any cooking, so the men cooked for the women and the men could not talk to the women. So this gave the women a break from the men. Nancy was 24 at the time and she said she was quite sick and weak, but after spending four months with guruji, her period was down to 7 days and a couple of years later of following guruji advice, she was down to three days. Nancy concluded by saying that men and women really are different and that we should acknowledge and honour this and women should not practice during menstruation. She also noted that her daughter's periods improved after she started practicing Ashtanga yoga.

In the evening, there was a lot of excitement, especially within the American crowd, because Barack Obama was going to be inaugurated as the new president. People were trying to find a place with a TV, and two or three eventually did go to a nearby hotel late in the evening to watch the inauguration.

Day 4: Wednesday (21)
Nancy asked us all to dedicate our practice today to Barack Obama. I went through my practice concentrating on not procrastinating by wiping away sweat etc, and Nancy and her assistants gave me no adjustments in the postures even the really difficult new postures in second series such as Kapotasana (Dove Pose). I did touch my toes in Kapotasana though, which seemed to impress Jason. I was very tired afterwards and Nancy said I should stop and I don't even think I did drop backs.

In Goa, there is a Saturday night market, which I did go to two years ago, which was really enjoyable, however, it has not been running for a few weeks now. On Wednesdays, there is a market in Anjuna. A whole bunch of us went. Vibeke came with me on the back of my scooter. The market was absolutely huge, spreading out from the entrance where we parked the bike on a dusty field, all the way back to the beach. We looked around for a bit, but then decided to escape the hustle and the bustle, by going to the Shore Restaurant on the beach and had something cool to drink.

There was no evening discourse.

Day 5: Thursday (22) - loving kindness meditation
Today was the last day that I could practice the second series, because Friday would be a lead class. Nancy said I should go directly into second series today (no primary series) and I went as far as she had taken me before and then she gave me new postures. At one point she hesitated to give me another posture wondering how tired I was, but I said to her, that I would take whatever posture she gives me and ended up doing the entire second series. Nancy still adds the scorpion pose after Karandayasana (Himalaya Goose Pose). This appears to have been in the series before.

On Thursday evening, Nancy did not do a discourse, but we had a meditation session after dinner. Katie is a friend of Nancy's, who has a very interesting lifestory of when she went to Burma to learn vipassana (meditation) in a monastery. She told us how slowly they would move so that they were aware of every moment, which was quite funny. It was in the late 1980's and she decided to stay longer and longer at the monastery and eventually they got word that the country was in a civil revolution and she eventually got to speak to the ambassodor from england who said, "It is quite alright, everything is under control, but the embassy staff are leaving the country today." She eventually did get out, but it was a very interesting story.

She compared yoga, which uses dristi (focus), breath and concentration during the physical practice of asana to the Tibetan tradition of meditation, which includes a lot of prostrations, which I had seen in my last trip in India, when I visited Dharamsala to see the annual teachings of the Dalai Lama. She said that Yoga is intrinsically linked to meditation. In meditation, we sit on our mats and our minds do not stop. We want to know how to ride our thoughts a little better, was the phrase she used. We want to be present and be completely aware, which is also the aim of yoga. After yoga we tend to be much more grounded and calmer, which is also an outcome of meditation.

She said that our minds set us up, it makes us believe things, which are not true or have not happened yet. The practice of meditation in Buddhism is used to relieve ourselves of this suffering.
Nancy introduced Katie to us by telling us how she was worried one night about her daughter who had gone out and was late. She said that Katie had given her the Loving Kindness meditation, which is an antidote to fear, and she practiced it that night and has used it ever since. I have quoted the meditation below, however, you can make up your own four lines that are more personal. First you would meditate, by repeating the phrases in your mind for yourself, "May I..." and then if you want to, you would send the meditation out to somebody else, starting off with a person you do not have a complicated relationship with.

May you be filled with loving kindness
May you be well
May you be peaceful
and at ease
May you be happy

Day 6: Friday (23)
Friday morning was lead class. Nancy was strict and told us that we are not allowed to move past a position, if she has not counted us into the next move. In lead class, people sometimes move on by their own, because their breath is dictating how fast they move, and the breath varies in all of us. So, to ensure that everyone moves as a group, teachers use position four (chatvari in sanskrit) when everybody is in Chaturanga Dandasana (four limbed staff pose, which is the same as the bottom part of a tricep pushup). This means if you are fast, you have to hold that position until she counts the next breath, number five (pancha). When you are doing a posture and she is busy assisting someone, you have to hold the posture for as long as she is busy adjusting that person no matter if you have done five breaths or not, and it does not matter if one side is much longer than the other.
I hardly ever practice a lead primary class at home, so it was quite difficult relinquishing control over the speed of my practice to someone else, and I found myself playing with the mind in postures that we had to hold for a long time, instead of just accepting it.

At one of the mealtimes, Nancy told me that I should practice primary and second series on alternate days when I get back home.

Second last day at Purple Valley

My body is not feeling that sore anymore, but a little tired. I usually get to the Shala before the rest of the 7:45 group and Michael told me to start immediately when he saw me come in today. For the last 2 days, I have been working alone, without Candice and Sarah. I went through my practice and while doing Mareechyasana I realised I had left out 3 asanas, Prasaritha Padothanasana, Purvatanasana and Janu Sarushasana C. Damn!!!
When I got to Supta Kurmasana, Michael assisted me to bind my hands behind my back and get my feet over my head as best as possible. He then led me through the rest of the series. I did the backbend 5 times today and then he assisted me with the start of going into the backbend from standing. Today was the last time we would practice Mysore style. Tomorrow is full moon and Michael will take us through a led class tomorrow morning at 6:45. PJ, like most Indian people, does things taking the stars into account and in Mysore, there will be no class on full moon and new moon days.

Since we had another afternoon session today, I did not go outside today to explore... I will still have lots of time going to Markets when in Mysuru. I spent some time cooking in the sun, swimming, and practicing on the slackline. Yesterday I had finally been able to stand up onto it and stay up for 4 to 5 seconds before falling off. Today I took 1 or 2 steps. Just like in yoga... progress slowly slowly :-)

The afternoon session with Michael started with a Q & A session as usual. The most interesting question I remember was what the chants at the beginning and end of practice meant. The first is literally bowing to the lotus feet of the past gurus and Patanjali who wrote down the yoga scriptures. The chant at the end asks that the rulers rule with justice, that knowledge be available to everyone etc.
We then worked on backbends. We did a short series of asanas so that we were nice and warm and then he started by telling us to lie on our stomach and keep the straightened legs on the floor as we lifted the upper torso. Then lift the torso and the legs, keeping the legs together and straight. Then we grabbed the ankles and lifted up again but keeping the knees together. He then asked us where we felt that. Then we did the same thing again this time allowing us to open the knees, which is the same as the Bikram backbend in prone position. He then asked us again where we felt that and everybody said the back!!! So his point is that the legs are so important in the backbend and when we walk hands and feet together, we should walk the hands towards the feet and not the feet to the hands. When people say they don't like Ashtanga, because their spine hurts but they feel nothing in the legs, it is because they are not using the legs properly.
We talked about the spine having its greatest mobility in the lower back (because the ribs are attached to the Thoracic spine) but that we should not just rely on that. We then worked on opening the shoulders and the upper spine. First we stood on our knees and grabbed our feet from behind while bending back. Then we placed the hands against the wall with our knees on the floor and arched the back and held that for about a minute. Then we did the stretch I would normally consider a tricep stretch but he showed us how to stretch the shoulders by lifting the gaze and pushing the head against the arm. Then we worked with partners as in the picture on the left and lastly we did handstands against the wall, but the hands placed some distance from the wall and then dropping the bum and legs against the wall, the back arching towards the wall.
We finished with the finishing series and then some meditation.

Dinner had a festive spirit to it, because we all knew it would be our last dinner together as most people will be going home or going elsewhere in India. After that we put on some music and Iman did some belly dancing for us...

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.