Focus Focus Focus

Team Conan!!!!  

Good for you for standing up to those inept NBC execs!

Day FOUR

Took the 6:30 evening class at my neighborhood studio with a teacher whose name I can't remember but I know it starts with a "C".  I think she is newbie teacher because I used to see her practicing at my regular studio and then I didn't see her for weeks, and now here she is at my neighborhood studio.

What I love about practicing in NYC is that my bikram teachers hail from all over the country and the world.  I've got teachers from Dallas, Seattle, the Philippines, Japan, Ecuador, India, and Eastern Europe.  It is so cool to hear the bikram dialogue spoken in English with accents from all over the world and even from near by (Jewish, Long Island, Bronx, and Brooklyn accents abound in one particular studio).  Yes, think Fran Drescher delivering dialogue).  Admittedly, there are some teachers who are difficult to understand like one teacher who said, "poin-yee-toe" during locust.  By the second set, I finally figured out that she was saying, "point your toe."  We do our best to listen because they do their best to teach.

Today, I stood in the juicy part of the room but close to the door.  I don't think I'll pick that spot again since I like to take a loooooong final savasana.  It is hard to bliss out in final savasana when people are walking by my head and feet to exit and the door is opening and closing, letting cold air in.

I am still getting used to the rules and vibe of this new studio.  It seems that people are allowed to leave the room and come back at any time.  People are allowed to drink water at any time, in between sets and even before "party time".  If the following scenario happened at my regular studio, the teacher would tell the student to sit down and stay in the room.  If a student absolutely had to leave the room, the teacher would signal them back but only between sets.  And absolutely no water during party time, no water between sets, no dousing yourself with water to cool off (One teacher told a student, "You can do that afterward when you shower.") and absolutely no hand towel.

It took TREMENDOUS concentration and focus to set up and stay in standing forehead to knee as a woman walked behind me to leave the room.  When she came back, another woman decided to leave the room!  Whaaaaa?????  She left during the first set of standing bow.  When the door opened, she casually walked back to her spot while many of us were trying to balance on one leg.  But she doesn't know better because the the teacher didn't say anything.  My mantra during those two postures was, "FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS."  If I didn't say that, I would've been saying, "F-you, F-you, F-you," at the woman and the teacher instead.  I chose to hang on to the positive energy even though it was not easy.  I entered the hot room after a hard day at the office.  Something came up and I got angry and frustrated with the situation.  I was moody on the way home and on the way to the studio but the heat and the moving meditation melted the day away.  I wish I could say that after yoga, I maintained my peace but unfortunately, when I recounted the day's events to The Husband over dinner, I got angry all over again. 

"Let no one steal your peace," Bikram says. In the hot room, I was successful.  Outside the hot room, not so much.  I need more practice.