Your Mind is Like a Wild Dog

Day SIX

Attended 4:30pm class at the neighborhood studio, taught by Victoria who is visiting from San Diego.  Victoria had great energy and my taking a class with her made me realize that I really like teachers whose voices change throughout the class:  they start calm yet energetic as we go through the warm up and by the time we get to the peak of the standing series, their voices ring.  By balancing stick, their voices have so much energy that I can't help but be like a "T as in 'Texas' ya'll" (a little variation from my favorite teacher who is a Texan).  There were a few times when the cadence of Victoria's dialogue, coupled with what I think is a Mexican accent, reminded me of an auctioneer.  I couldn't help but smile when she said "Change!" in the same way an auctioneer said, "SOLD!"  She helped people in class correcting them in both English and Spanish.  I thought it was cool to hear some of the dialogue in Spanish.  It certainly refreshed my memory of body parts in Spanish:  la rodilla = knee; las piernas = legs; los manos = hands.  :)

I was cramping in the beginning of class -- perhaps I wasn't hydrated enough?  In the second and third parts of awkward (my favorite:  note the sarcasm), my arches were killing me.  It took every ounce of energy to get in, stay in, and come out of the posture.  By standing forehead to knee, my standing leg cramped up so much so that I had to fall out after pulling my elbows down to the calf, both sides.  I struggled in triangle but stuck with it and by the time I got to standing separate leg head to knee pose (my second favorite pose:  again note the hint of sarcasm) I really had to focus on calming my breath down.

I reached for water today more than I usually do.  I drank right before fixed firm, which made for a little queasy camel, and again right after rabbit.  In the first set of rabbit, I mentally disconnected for a moment before I told myself to snap back into it...and Victoria felt it.  She said, "Stay with the words.  I see some of you are disconnecting.  I've been doing this long enough to know and because I've done it myself."  In the savasana immediately following that first set of rabbit she said, "Your mind is like a wild dog and like a dog, you have to teach your mind to 'sit' and it shouldn't move until you give it another command.  That takes practice."

She let people leave the room when they couldn't stand the heat or couldn't catch their breath.  Guess what happened when one person left the room?  Yup, a second immediately followed and Victoria exclaimed, "Noo.  Where are you going?  Don't leave!  If you go, it will spread like an infection!!!"  I almost laughed out loud when she said that.  But it's totally true.  When one goes down, others want to follow.  We are each responsible for the energy in that room.

Yogis and yoginis, I've never sweated like I sweated tonight.  My towel was doubly drenched and my yoga mat had puddles of perspiration on it even after I removed the towel.  I had to sit down in the locker room for 10 minutes without moving.  It was just one of those classes.  I am still proud that I managed to do both sets of every posture and I noticed that in the last few classes I've been able to touch my forehead to the floor in standing separate leg stretching pose.  I could never touch my forehead to the floor in the last 9 months of practicing.  Boo yah!!  Hooray for small victories.