Mary in India

The yoga was fantastic, I've felt like such a bump on a log lately, it really was needed. The teacher was great, a true yoga master. Unlike all the ones I found in San Francisco who have morphed their classes to suit Americans. Many teachers in San Francisco use yoga as almost an aerobics class, moving from pose to pose too quickly just to make sweat and feel like you "got your moneys worth". I found it hard to perfect my poses and really notice my breathing in any of those classes. I find relaxing yoga much more satisfying for me physically and mentally. Our teacher here was seriously into aryuveda, and after class taught us a little about the main principles. Aryuveda doesn't really interest me much, I don't think classifying peoples bodies into only three categories is very accurate. But he was a great teacher, he took his time to watch his students and align poses that were flawed. He stressed the importance of not straining your body, not to pull muscles, to listen to your body. A belief that is quite opposite in the U.S., where if your not pushing your limits your not learning, so to speak. I always hated that belief! I really liked this style of yoga, focusing more on breathing, and holding poses for longer periods of time. Though I couldn't help but giggle at a lot of his mantras converted to English, especially at the end of class during "meditative sleep", he was trying to relax our minds by giving us soothing relaxing words. His accent was so hilarious though I really had to focus to keep from smiling.

"Tink of your body...*long pause*... as a gatevay to da mind.

I wasn't the only one, I peered over at Remi and he was smiling. Remi was really glad he came, he's has had a lot of back problems lately from working too long in front of the computer. Also, he has really bad posture, he is always hunkered over. I told him yoga would really help with his back, and he did feel a lot better afterwards. He has zero flexibility, I've never seen anyone as rigid as Remi before. I think he will benefit greatly from this class.

The class had such an effect on a lot of us here on campus that we had trouble sleeping that night. Some say they think it was because the class gave them so much energy, but other people heard that yoga can release toxins in your body and that they can agitate, preventing sleep. Who knows, but I'm really excited for round two!