Field trip!

Week 1 done

We've finally got a little bit of a break tonight so I'm trying to take advantage of it to create a substantial post.

Every day is nonstop from 5AM to 10PM, with just a few breaks to shower and relax. We have daily "homework" assignments as well, so much of our limited free time (10-20 minutes 3 times a day) is spent doing that, not to mention hand washing laundry. Luckily they gave us 2 uniforms that we can rotate.

I've said that our teachers are amazing but I haven't really elaborated. There are a total of 10 staffers. 2 of them are officially swamis, who have been initiated to this highest level because of their dedicated lives to the sivananda practice. The head swami govinanda received his education (gurukula) directly from swami visnudevananda who was the top disciple of swami sivananda who the practice is named after. Swami govinanda is the most senior Indian swami alive today underneath this yoga umbrella. He leads all our meditation and chanting sessions as well as giving us all of the history and education about the yoga theories. He's a very smart funny dude and is incredibly knowledgeable and wise about almost every topic. Sure there are a few stories and things that don't pass my sniff test, but he provides a fair amount scientific research to back some things up.

There's a lot of spirituality being taught. It's a modernized school of Hindi. Interesting stuff, and it's all adapted to accept and integrate all religions of the world today (you will see Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, and Buddha in some of the chants). It's a bit tricky to keep track of all the millions of Hindu gods and goddesses, and their symbolism, etc. It's also a bit farfetched at times, but at the end of the day, it's an interesting methodology of living a good, healthy life so I am able to respect and appreciate it all.

On the physical side, asana practice is led by arun, who has been teaching for around 25 years. He is an amazing instructor with a great sense of humor. He is assisted by 6 other professional teachers with multiple years of experience. As we practice our asana poses, as well as our breathing and relaxation, they are all walking around the room assisting and correcting people. We do our asana practice twice a day and I have already discovered hundreds of things I have been doing incorrectly my whole life and I'm making many improvements. Every student is going through this same transformation. One of our teachers is this huge Lebanese dude with a shaved head (not mike Hanna) who is extremely inspirational to me and has really pointed out many deficiencies in my practice and helped me big time. He's a jokester and the only other Quasi-white guy around.

Throughout these classes, our teachers are also showing us how to actually lead a yoga class...duh that's what were supposed to be here for! It's quite intimidating but the power you have as a teacher is really amazing. Telling people to breathe and move and everything and having them follow your every word is exhilarating but comes with heavy responsibility. We will be advancing in this regard very quickly in the upcoming 3 weeks. Thus far I have been singled out for praise from the true teachers when we have done our brief teaching of other students.

The food has been nothing short of amazing. It's all organic vegetables and different everyday and always delicious without any bad shit in it. Night and day from any diet I've ever had before. Of course it's all u can eat so I can easily get myself in trouble here. While you can use a spoon, most people eat with their hands. I've done it a few times but I prefer using the spoon when the meal is so loose. Currently my duty or "karma yoga" at the ashram is to serve breakfast to everyone. It's pretty enjoyable. We also have 2 tea breaks and the occasional sweet which is again a healthy Indian sweet as opposed to any other candy I've ever eaten. The chefs make all this stuff from scratch in the ashram which is kore or less in the middle of nowhere 2 hours from the closest town Himalayas. It's pretty awesome.

Tomorrow is our "rest day" but I've decided to go on the optional trip to this temple complex 3 hours away. Well also stop in the "local" town of Almora so it will be nice to see a bit kore of this beautiful area. Got to Hit the sack now.

Dinner

Every meal is different, awesome, and healthy as this. I'm going to start taking more pics

Day 6 pic

Day 5 pic

Got a bit sick last night, sore throat and lots of mucus.

Day 4 update

So on day 2 it was discovered that I have been breathing incorrectly all my life. Mine was seriously the complete opposite of the proper breathing technique. As I breathed in, my chest would expand while my stomach contracted, as I try to fill my upper lungs. This doesn't make any sense since the biggest and strongest part of my lungs is in the diaphragm region behind my abs. Therefore the stomach should be expanding during the inhale and contracting during exhale! The class got quite a kick out of this as nobody else had the same problem. Almost a stupid human trick. I have been unlearning my wrong technique and improving proper breathing over the past 2 days and I'm noticing a huge difference.

We are really making a ton of progress in all aspects of the course so far in just 3 days. Many people who couldn't do a headstand for the life of them on Monday are already pulling it off. There's a pretty neat camaraderie being built up between everyone, male-female-young-old.
As I'm the only white guy, I get a lot of jokes and attention directed my way, which is fun.
Today, during our afternoon asana class, I was holding a strong headstand so Arun helped bring me into the scorpion position where I lean my lower legs over my head, separate my hands and put forearms on the ground, then lift my head off the ground so all my body is supported by my 2 arms. I couldn't hold my weight myself, but hopefully by th end of this course I'll be able to pull it off.
This Saturday a few of us will leave the ashram to visit a nearby town, Almora, as well as a very famous Himalayan temple which should be quite interesting now that I have this additional knowledge about the customs here.
Off to total lunar eclipse meditation...I'll reserve a post for that later...definitely the hardest part of the program.

Day 4 pic