Saturday, February 11, 2023

Day 9, Yoga School, Rishikesh, India, February 11, 2023

My intention for today was patience: patience with myself in doing the poses, patience with the clock- not to watch it too much especially during pranayama and meditation, and patience with my teachers and their pronunciation.  I’ve run out of patience with the cooks.  Supper was disgusting- hot and sour soup but not really, white rice, lentils, pasta with what looked like ketchup for sauce and big chunks of green pepper and the straw that broke the camel’s back - blended spinach with chunks of cooked mushrooms.  I only took soup and spinach and after a mouthful, dumped it in the garbage and went back to the Israeli place for falafel. While there I was listening to the table next to me and eventually joined Finn from Ontario, Ashley from Dublin and Joseph from Germany. They go to a different school and so we were comparing. My school was on sale so rather than $1300 US I paid $1000. They paid $1300 but their day doesn’t start until 6:15, meditation and pranayama are only 45 minutes each and they only go half a day on Saturdays and have all day Sunday off.  They finish on the 24th. Joseph, who is also 61, said that he is not even the oldest person.  They are pleased with their food, but so are probably some at this place so that is subjective. I know the grass is always greener but in some ways I wish I was there, just for the camaraderie with people my age.

Our pranayama instructor took us outside with our neti pots-



The first time I heard of this concept was when I lived in Paynton. I had a terrible cold and Dr. Dyck  in Maidstone told me to snort salt water up one nostril to help with my sinuses.  It worked but I don’t think I’ve ever done it again until today.

It’s not always easy to copy notes-


This is also the guy who opens up the attendance book and asks us who is missing, counts the class, counts the names on the list and closes the book. However, he’s not as bad as the anatomy teacher who told us today that you can get scoliosis by carrying a shoulder bag or by using a mouse a lot and these kids are just breathing it all in!  

Yesterday in philosophy we drew a picture and today the prof offered to interpret everyone’s. You would have thought he was giving out free candy the way the kids practically ran to the front to be able to sit right beside him. I rolled my eyes.  They were so desperate in fact James, the child in the man’s body who farted horrible lentil farts all morning, asked quietly if he could record what the prof had to say about him but once the prof got going, it was evident he was really full of shit so James decided he didn’t need to record. I just shook my head. And what’s interesting is how the prof feeds off this adoration from these children-


The sun represents spirituality, mountains- goals, the snake power and sexuality, the house love, the river emotions, birds freedom, trees family and the path desires.  I drove over my snake and killed it ( I hate snakes!).  The best thing about the exercise was that it used up to full classes! I am just sounding so negative but I am very disillusioned.

My physical ability is coming along pretty well. It’s amazing what happens to your body when you’re physically active more than three hours per day. One thing I cannot do though is lie on my back and roll forward to a seated position but then continue to stand up.   Today’s ashtanga class was more like gymnastics and we did a lot of partner work, similar to what I remember teaching in gym class years ago. One partner lays on their back with their arms and legs straight up in the air while the other partner gets on top of them and extends their arms out like an airplane. We also were back to back, hooked arms and then using our butt in the sway of the back of the other person lifted them up and then let go. My partner Seema could not lift and hold me but she can do the forward roll and stand up into chair pose. It is funny how differently our muscles work.

Tomorrow the group is going on an excursion to a waterfall but I am not. I need some unorganized time.

Only 2 weeks to go!



No comments:

Post a Comment

  Cancun, Mexico to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,     December 31, 2023 I was up at 4:30 and walking to the bus depot by 5:30.  I wore my headlam...