I've thought about this topic so many times that I was half convinced that I'd already blogged about it. But I checked my archives and I have not written this post yet. It is time!
I've gotten lots of emails and questions from aspiring Bikram yoga teachers, and everybody wants to know the same thing: "Can you make a living teaching Bikram yoga?"
My answer is YES, but with a few qualifications.
First - The Numbers
Here are the numbers. On average, at least in my experience, new teachers will make about $50/class. (In some cases you'll have to teach a class or two for free as an audition of sorts, but as a rule you should be paid for all public classes!) As a full time teacher, you would teach maybe 9-12 classes per week. Personally, I teach 10/week whenever possible. (If I teach less, I get bored. If I teach much more, I get burned out.) So do the math - you're gonna start at about $2,000/month.
If you're the sole breadwinner for a family of 4, that's probably not going to cut it.
If you're single and not carrying too much debt, this is totally feasible. You won't have enough money to drink expensive vodka at clubs every night and vacation in Croatia, but you'll have enough cash to go out for beer with friends and go hiking and stuff like that. It's comparable to the money I made as a grad student, less than the money I made as a waitress, and more than the money I made as a starving artist.
Also bear in mind that you will work lots of morning, evenings, and weekends, but you will still have some free time. I used to do some SAT tutoring in the afternoons during my "dead time," which was actually pretty profitable. You could also work from home, if you do any sort of freelance. Just count on 3 classes/day on average, because you'll be teaching 2 and taking 1. (Gotta keep practicing!) It is tiring at first, but you can adapt to it. My first week of teaching "full time," I spent 90% of my free time napping. But now in a normal week I can teach 10x and practice beginner class 6x, plus 1 or 2 advanced classes, and I have energy to spare.
After a year or two, you may start to earn more. I don't want to tell you guys how much I make now because that's kind of tacky - you can email me if you really need to know - but I'm making significantly more than $50/class and I get some great benefits, too.
Second - How to Get Classes
This seems to be the big topic on the new teacher's discussion boards - getting classes to teach!!
There are plenty of people who chose to return to their normal jobs after training and just teach a couple times a week, and that's totally cool. Especially if you have a great salary that you're not ready or able to sacrifice, this is a really logical thing to do. Your learning curve will be a bit slower if you can only teach a couple times a week, but be patient with yourself.
If you're trying to get classes at a local studio, the etiquette is pretty standard. Call or email, introduce yourself, take class with the owner, and make yourself available. Definitely take class - it's the best way to show the owner your work ethic and your personality. Studio owners aren't looking for you to touch the floor in your backbend or lock out standing bow, but they do want to see if you're a hard worker, if you have a good attitude, and if you understand the yoga - and that stuff will all be obvious in your personal practice. Smile. Owners want to hire people who are nice to be around and won't scare off the newbies. Keep saying your dialogue out loud. Teach class to the birds and the fishes if you have to, but keep it flowing.
Now here's the big topic: what if you want to teach full time and there just aren't classes available in your area?
No choice - you have to move!!
You guys, there are so many jobs out there! And no, they're not in New York City or southern California or Vancouver or Paris. They're in Ohio and Michigan and Albama and Montana. And there are so. Many. Jobs. There are studios that are virtually begging for teachers. One of my friends - a girl who is temporarily teaching with me in Rhode Island - posted to the traveling teacher's group last week: "I need somewhere to teach in the states. What studios are looking for a good dialogue driven teacher? Graduated Fall 2009." She found a job within a couple of days, and she's gotten calls and messages from like half a dozen other studios. She's been like, "Omigod, this is great, but I'm good now, everybody can stop messaging me!!" There are so many jobs.
What you've gotta realize, especially as a new teacher, is that it doesn't really matter where you teach as long as you teach as much as possible. Sure, it's tempting to go for the exotic location or just stick with the familiar location at home, but that's not gonna make you a better teacher. If you want to make a career of this - (and if you don't, that's fine, just do it part-time) - if you really wanna go for it, you just have to get up and go where the work is. The more you teach, the better you get. The better you get, the more opportunities you will have. The more experiences you have, the more locations will be available to you. But to get yourself started? Man, it does not matter where you go. Just go to an established dialogue studio in the middle of Bumf*ck, Nowhere and teach 10/week for a couple of months. Your teaching will grow by leaps and bounds.
Specific Example - What I Did
When I graduated from TT in June 2010, I was still living in southern California. My "home studio" could only give me maybe 4 classes a week, but I picked up tons of classes when other teachers got sick or went on summer vacation. I drove to the next-closest studio, an hour away, to pick up classes, and I taught a couple times in LA for free. I went up to Fresno for one week and taught 10 classes there, and that helped immensely. And then I got out of there - like a bat out of hell! - and went to Baltimore because there was a studio there that could give me full time work. I had never been to Baltimore. I only knew one person there: the studio owner.
I planned to stay there for about 3 months. It ended up working out so well that I stayed there for almost a year and a half. Good fit.
While I was living in Baltimore - as my blog readers know - I also did a fair bit of traveling and teaching. In total, I've taught at 16 different studios since I graduated. (And I haven't even taught overseas yet - this is all domestic, in the U.S.) This is helpful in several ways. First, teaching in new places challenges you to grow as a teacher. It's easy to get in a rut if you just stand in the same spot and teach the same group of people every day. Second, it lets you experience more contrast. It opens up your world! You get to see all the different ways that studios operate - the styles, the policies, the communities, the attitudes, everything. This does more than just improve your teaching - it also help you figure out what you're looking for. Then you can really make an educated decision about what you want - and when that perfect opportunity finally presents itself, you will recognize it!!
I'm in such a great place right now - really, blissfully great - and I'm sure that I would not have gotten here if I hadn't done all that exploration first.
Third - Money Can't Buy Me Love!
If I hadn't gone to teacher training, I would still be a Ph.D. student and my income would actually be less that what it is now.
If I hadn't got to teacher training and had stuck with engineering, I could probably have made a six figure salary sometime within the next 10 years.
If I had become an engineer, I would be rich and miserable - because my heart was not there. Sitting in a lab for hours on end never made me happy.
There is no substitute for doing work that you love.
I have enough cash to live comfortably and have fun. I cook, I spend time with my friends, I go on adventures, I laugh often, and I teach almost every day. No substitute.
I have never regretted my choice to become a full time yoga teacher. I have no regrets and no doubts. I don't really know what I'll want in 5 years or 10 years, but I know what I want now, and this is it. It's good stuff.
Questions?!
I'm not even proofreading this post. I want to publish it before I head out to take class, teach class, get dinner at PF Chang's, and see Beauty and the Beast in 3D with the other yoga teachers. :) If there's anything that you think I have left out or got wrong, let me know in the comments and I will post an addendum.
-----------------
UPDATE:
Two days later, after many lovely comments and suggestions, here is Part Two!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Try, Try Again!
As the old saying goes: If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
This weekend, I once again pulled on my leotard, put on some mascara, and got up on stage to do my 3-minute routine for the local yoga championship. And what do you know, I once again fell out of my favorite posture, the wonderful standing bow pulling pose.
And I really don't mind!
Last year, when this happened, it took me a couple of days to get over it, but this year I started laughing right away. Well, not right away - first I did the rest of my postures (without any problem) and got off the stage. Apparently this one posture just has stage fright. I can do it on a dime pretty much any time, any place. I can do it without warm-up, I can do it outside, I can do it for friends, I can even do it in a workshop with the international champions when everybody is watching me. But it pulls a vanishing act in competition - something about that big empty, quiet room just makes me loose my shit at precisely the wrong moment!
I got much closer this year, though. Last year I couldn't even get my leg up! This year I got my leg almost all the way up - I saw a video and it looked much better than it felt - but then I panicked and stopped kicking, so I fell out. If you lose the balance, you're not kicking hard enough! I am still pleased with my progress. By next year, I feel confident that I will be able to keep my nerve and do the posture in public!
I had a lot of fun preparing for the championships this year. I think I said in my last post, I took a very "come as you are" approach. My philosophy is that you have the whole year to work on your postures, so all you really need to do at the end is put together a routine and refine it a little bit.
I whined and moaned about competing up until about a week ago. Then I started running my routine and realized that it was in decent shape. I don't want to brag, but I did the routine flawlessly (meaning: my personal best) every time I showed it to somebody before the big day. So I decided to quit worrying about the postures and focus on the mental aspect instead. The whole thing is 100% mind over matter. It's actually very interesting to watch one of these events (although I didn't get to watch very much this year). Almost everybody who gets up to compete has amazing postures. So it really is a battle of nerves more than anything else. Who can keep their calm and do their practice under those stressful and intimidating conditions? That is the true yoga! It takes tremendous courage (or as Bikram would say, balls) to get up on stage at all.
Anyway, I prepared for this year's competition by meditating on my routine every day. I would just lay down for a while and visualize the whole thing. I included in this exercise: how do I want to breathe, what do I want to do with my body, and how do I want to feel while I do it. It was really fun! I've never really been "into" meditation before - I would usually either get distracted or fall asleep - but this week I just couldn't get enough of it. And even though I wasn't entirely successful on stage, I don't blame that on the technique. Next year I will prepare the same way, but I will start doing it sooner!
It's been nice to reconnect with all my friends in Baltimore this week. We're all going out one more time tonight for guacamole and margaritas, and then I'm heading back up to Providence tomorrow morning.
Also, my student Lauren competed for the first time this year and she won 3rd place! I am so proud. I had a feeling she was going to place - she nailed her routine and she totally deserved to win. Here is her frigging bow:
This weekend, I once again pulled on my leotard, put on some mascara, and got up on stage to do my 3-minute routine for the local yoga championship. And what do you know, I once again fell out of my favorite posture, the wonderful standing bow pulling pose.
And I really don't mind!
Last year, when this happened, it took me a couple of days to get over it, but this year I started laughing right away. Well, not right away - first I did the rest of my postures (without any problem) and got off the stage. Apparently this one posture just has stage fright. I can do it on a dime pretty much any time, any place. I can do it without warm-up, I can do it outside, I can do it for friends, I can even do it in a workshop with the international champions when everybody is watching me. But it pulls a vanishing act in competition - something about that big empty, quiet room just makes me loose my shit at precisely the wrong moment!
I got much closer this year, though. Last year I couldn't even get my leg up! This year I got my leg almost all the way up - I saw a video and it looked much better than it felt - but then I panicked and stopped kicking, so I fell out. If you lose the balance, you're not kicking hard enough! I am still pleased with my progress. By next year, I feel confident that I will be able to keep my nerve and do the posture in public!
I had a lot of fun preparing for the championships this year. I think I said in my last post, I took a very "come as you are" approach. My philosophy is that you have the whole year to work on your postures, so all you really need to do at the end is put together a routine and refine it a little bit.
I whined and moaned about competing up until about a week ago. Then I started running my routine and realized that it was in decent shape. I don't want to brag, but I did the routine flawlessly (meaning: my personal best) every time I showed it to somebody before the big day. So I decided to quit worrying about the postures and focus on the mental aspect instead. The whole thing is 100% mind over matter. It's actually very interesting to watch one of these events (although I didn't get to watch very much this year). Almost everybody who gets up to compete has amazing postures. So it really is a battle of nerves more than anything else. Who can keep their calm and do their practice under those stressful and intimidating conditions? That is the true yoga! It takes tremendous courage (or as Bikram would say, balls) to get up on stage at all.
Anyway, I prepared for this year's competition by meditating on my routine every day. I would just lay down for a while and visualize the whole thing. I included in this exercise: how do I want to breathe, what do I want to do with my body, and how do I want to feel while I do it. It was really fun! I've never really been "into" meditation before - I would usually either get distracted or fall asleep - but this week I just couldn't get enough of it. And even though I wasn't entirely successful on stage, I don't blame that on the technique. Next year I will prepare the same way, but I will start doing it sooner!
It's been nice to reconnect with all my friends in Baltimore this week. We're all going out one more time tonight for guacamole and margaritas, and then I'm heading back up to Providence tomorrow morning.
Also, my student Lauren competed for the first time this year and she won 3rd place! I am so proud. I had a feeling she was going to place - she nailed her routine and she totally deserved to win. Here is her frigging bow:
NOT ME NOT ME NOT ME
I know right?? I can't say I'm surprised that she did so well, since I am well aware of her talents, but I am very happy for her!
As always, even though I had to drag myself into it kicking and screaming, I'm thrilled that I went through this process. It's a different learning experience every time. You never get it wrong and you never get it done.*
Now I am relieved to return home, put all that crazy competition stuff behind me for a while, and focus on other things. These things will include: going out to dances and meet-ups, trying out the flying trapeze, more cooking and baking, less driving, more local exploring, and continuing to develop a super kick-ass yoga practice. Boo-yah.
Please no sympathy comments. I feel pretty good. :)
-----------------------------
*For those who recognize that sentence from somewhere: you bet I have drank that Kool-Aid!!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Pride and Prejudice, or How I Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Right Side
In the spirit of progress and renewal - abandoning tired old habits and thought patterns, replacing them with better ones, moving forward into the new year - I am going to make a confession.
I have been guilty of one of the seven deadly sins. Fortunately I am not religious in any way, so I don't expect that this is going to result in an eternity of torment. But your body does respond to your thoughts and emotions - this is a fact - so I think I'd better come clean anyway.
Pride. Pride is my mistake.
I have always been proud of my standing bow posture. (See for example my icon.) Okay, you can see why I'm proud of it - it is, objectively, quite a good posture! (SEE - there it is again, pride.) But you know what? I'm only proud of the left side. I've got pictures of the left side up all over the place - from vacations, from championships, from classes, from teacher training. The earliest one was taken in 2007. The left side is the one I use for my blog picture and for my new profile on the Ocean State Bikram Yoga website. (Which: check it out! I'm official!) But not the right side. Never the right side. Not a single picture exists of that posture on the right side.
Why do I have this prejudice against the right side? You know what? I can't remember. I mean, the left side has always been easier. But in the beginning, it wasn't that big of a difference. Just a small preference, really. Both sides are pretty good. I can lock out on both sides. But sometime in 2007 I started favoring the left side, and I've kept it up ever since.
I've treated left-side-standing-bow like a favorite only child and I've treated right-side-standing-bow like an embarrassing second cousin. Left-side-standing-bow gets showered with gifts - really good ones like iPads - while right-side-standing-bow gets a brick for Christmas. It's like, if I were Petunia Dursley, the left side would be Dudley and the right side would be Harry Potter in the cupboard under the stairs. Poor thing.
So really, my mistakes are pride and prejudice. Aha! Now I have a title for this post!!
I have held this prejudice for going on 5 years now. I mean, why not? I'm just neglecting one half of my body - what could possibly go wrong??
Yeeeeeeah.
I pulled my hamstring last week. In standing bow. On the good side. I was holding the posture (for once), kicking and stretching, equal and simultaneous, 50-50, feeling like everything was good in the world. And then one spot on the bottom of my standing leg thigh went snap. It didn't hurt - it just felt like snapping a rubber band. I didn't even move. All that moved was my brain. My brain said, "ooooooh, shit."
This is not really a big problem - it's just a small pull, I'm being very gentle and taking good care of it (hand on the floor for standing separate leg stretching, no pulling, check), and it should be all healed up in a couple more weeks. Except - except! - I'm signed up for the Maryland regional championships next weekend. I'm competing next Saturday.
You see what this means, right?? I have to do the other side - the "bad side" - on stage in a leotard in front of everybody.
Everything is in divine order!
(It's so irritating when that happens. I get it, I get it, I get the fricking message.)
Incidentally or maybe not, I got some amazing body work done just before Christmas by this guy named Bruce, who is a legend in these parts. He does energy healing (which sounds crazy but I don't know what else to call it) and chiropractic adjustment. This was my first Bruce session and it blew my mind. He's amazing. He looked at my body for a few minutes, barely touched me, and then knew 1) exactly what my problem was and 2) what specific emotion had caused it. The root of the problem was 100% emotional (and no it wasn't pride, it was a different one, I'm not going to say what) and it was fucking up the whole right half of my body. When Bruce named the emotion, I was just like - yup, absolutely. He was spot on. And this was no fuzzy science, this was a very precise emotion. And then the crazier part was that he made it go away. Not 100% cleared, but like 90% better. And then he did lots of fun snapping and popping to put stuff back into place, and at the end my body felt incredible.
And then I pulled my hamstring. Too bad for me! It is all part of the process!!
I'm taking a very "come as you are" approach to this upcoming championship. I've been practicing for it in a sort of half-assed way after class, and I'm sort of hoping that things will magically come together. I'm so not in it to win it, and for me, that's probably better! I'm just gonna go down to Baltimore, see my friends, teach some classes, drag my butt up on stage for 3 minutes, do my seven postures including that beautiful long-neglected right-side standing bow, cheer on my fellow yogis, and then go out for a drink. At least two drinks. I hope I can convince Lauren to drive.
Out with the old, in with the new!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a related topic, the New York Times magazine published a somber article last week titled How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. I read the whole thing. It's long and moderately interesting, but by the time I finished, I still wanted those 10 minutes of my life back.
There have been lots of good comments among the yogis on Facebook, all along the lines of: "Yes, you can get injured in any activity if you follow your ego and don't respect your own limits." Also: "Boy am I glad that we do Bikram!" (Surprisingly, for once, Bikram yoga is not mentioned once in the article, and all the postures that the article complains about are ones that are omitted from our series. Score.)
But the best response, by far, is this blog post by an Astanga yogi titled Reading Blogs Can Wreck Your Body. It is so damn good. You can skip reading the original article and just read this response - it will leave a better taste in your mouth. Check it out!
I have been guilty of one of the seven deadly sins. Fortunately I am not religious in any way, so I don't expect that this is going to result in an eternity of torment. But your body does respond to your thoughts and emotions - this is a fact - so I think I'd better come clean anyway.
Pride. Pride is my mistake.
I have always been proud of my standing bow posture. (See for example my icon.) Okay, you can see why I'm proud of it - it is, objectively, quite a good posture! (SEE - there it is again, pride.) But you know what? I'm only proud of the left side. I've got pictures of the left side up all over the place - from vacations, from championships, from classes, from teacher training. The earliest one was taken in 2007. The left side is the one I use for my blog picture and for my new profile on the Ocean State Bikram Yoga website. (Which: check it out! I'm official!) But not the right side. Never the right side. Not a single picture exists of that posture on the right side.
Why do I have this prejudice against the right side? You know what? I can't remember. I mean, the left side has always been easier. But in the beginning, it wasn't that big of a difference. Just a small preference, really. Both sides are pretty good. I can lock out on both sides. But sometime in 2007 I started favoring the left side, and I've kept it up ever since.
I've treated left-side-standing-bow like a favorite only child and I've treated right-side-standing-bow like an embarrassing second cousin. Left-side-standing-bow gets showered with gifts - really good ones like iPads - while right-side-standing-bow gets a brick for Christmas. It's like, if I were Petunia Dursley, the left side would be Dudley and the right side would be Harry Potter in the cupboard under the stairs. Poor thing.
So really, my mistakes are pride and prejudice. Aha! Now I have a title for this post!!
I have held this prejudice for going on 5 years now. I mean, why not? I'm just neglecting one half of my body - what could possibly go wrong??
Yeeeeeeah.
I pulled my hamstring last week. In standing bow. On the good side. I was holding the posture (for once), kicking and stretching, equal and simultaneous, 50-50, feeling like everything was good in the world. And then one spot on the bottom of my standing leg thigh went snap. It didn't hurt - it just felt like snapping a rubber band. I didn't even move. All that moved was my brain. My brain said, "ooooooh, shit."
This is not really a big problem - it's just a small pull, I'm being very gentle and taking good care of it (hand on the floor for standing separate leg stretching, no pulling, check), and it should be all healed up in a couple more weeks. Except - except! - I'm signed up for the Maryland regional championships next weekend. I'm competing next Saturday.
You see what this means, right?? I have to do the other side - the "bad side" - on stage in a leotard in front of everybody.
Everything is in divine order!
(It's so irritating when that happens. I get it, I get it, I get the fricking message.)
Incidentally or maybe not, I got some amazing body work done just before Christmas by this guy named Bruce, who is a legend in these parts. He does energy healing (which sounds crazy but I don't know what else to call it) and chiropractic adjustment. This was my first Bruce session and it blew my mind. He's amazing. He looked at my body for a few minutes, barely touched me, and then knew 1) exactly what my problem was and 2) what specific emotion had caused it. The root of the problem was 100% emotional (and no it wasn't pride, it was a different one, I'm not going to say what) and it was fucking up the whole right half of my body. When Bruce named the emotion, I was just like - yup, absolutely. He was spot on. And this was no fuzzy science, this was a very precise emotion. And then the crazier part was that he made it go away. Not 100% cleared, but like 90% better. And then he did lots of fun snapping and popping to put stuff back into place, and at the end my body felt incredible.
And then I pulled my hamstring. Too bad for me! It is all part of the process!!
I'm taking a very "come as you are" approach to this upcoming championship. I've been practicing for it in a sort of half-assed way after class, and I'm sort of hoping that things will magically come together. I'm so not in it to win it, and for me, that's probably better! I'm just gonna go down to Baltimore, see my friends, teach some classes, drag my butt up on stage for 3 minutes, do my seven postures including that beautiful long-neglected right-side standing bow, cheer on my fellow yogis, and then go out for a drink. At least two drinks. I hope I can convince Lauren to drive.
Out with the old, in with the new!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a related topic, the New York Times magazine published a somber article last week titled How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. I read the whole thing. It's long and moderately interesting, but by the time I finished, I still wanted those 10 minutes of my life back.
There have been lots of good comments among the yogis on Facebook, all along the lines of: "Yes, you can get injured in any activity if you follow your ego and don't respect your own limits." Also: "Boy am I glad that we do Bikram!" (Surprisingly, for once, Bikram yoga is not mentioned once in the article, and all the postures that the article complains about are ones that are omitted from our series. Score.)
But the best response, by far, is this blog post by an Astanga yogi titled Reading Blogs Can Wreck Your Body. It is so damn good. You can skip reading the original article and just read this response - it will leave a better taste in your mouth. Check it out!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Turning of the Season
"Here we come to a turning of the season
Witness to the arc towards the sun."
- The Decemberists
Happy New Year, all! I imagine that some of you have already crossed the line into 2012. I've still got a few more hours left to 2011. I'm heading out pretty soon to take the 10:30pm yoga class - finishing at midnight, of course! - but right now I'm happily relaxing at home with a cup of tea and some good music. (The lines that I put up at the top of this post are the first lines of one of my favorite albums this year.) Just enough time for a blog update!
Compared to 2010, this past year was significantly less dramatic. 2010 was all about change, change, change - finishing/quitting grad school, getting to teacher training, finishing teacher training, moving cross country (again), and starting my new life as a yoga teacher.
This year, I've just kept on that trajectory. If 2010 was a year for change, then 2011 was a year for expansion. It's been a full year of full-time yoga, and it's been fantastic. All together, I must have spent at least 2 months out of the year travelling - weeks of guest teaching in Kentucky, Virginia, Alabama, and Rhode Island, plus a really solid visit to teacher training in Los Angeles, plus the wonderful craziness of Bonnaroo Music Festival (which was definitely a highlight). In between trips, I have been firmly planted in Baltimore (up until recently), just teaching and teaching and doing my thing, trying to learn new things and get better at my craft. I made some wonderful friendships, all over the place but especially in Baltimore, that are sure to last for a very long time. A good year!
There have been some ups and downs, some personal frustrations, but overall it's really been fun.
I think Abraham is totally onto something: "The basis of your life is freedom; the purpose of your life is joy."
(Tangent: Heard of Abraham? Here's the best summary. It is woo-woo as all hell and I'm not sure if I believe half of it, but my god, most of the stuff that comes out of Esther Hick's mouth is just spot on. I get such a kick out of it.)
I know I haven't updated since my move to Rhode Island. If I had to summarize my feelings about my new job/location in two words, they would be: "fucking fantastic." It's great being close to home and close to Boston again. I've seen lots of my Massachusetts yoga family this month, and I hope to see even more Boston people next year! The West Roxbury advanced class Tuesday is back on my permanent schedule, which makes me so happy. (My schedule requests to my new boss Molly were as follows: I need Mondays off completely, Tuesday mornings off for advanced class, and Thursday nights off for swing dance class.) The studio has a permanent staff of four teacher right now (plus a rotating cast of visitors), and three of us are all around the same age and experience level, so we are getting along great. It's like having siblings - we do fun things together like going out to dinner, seeing movies at the mall, and baking a tray full of brownies in the shape of Santa hats for the annual Solstice party. Attendance at the studio has been booming this month, and we all anticipate that January will be even crazier - people around here just can't get enough of the yoga!
So onwards we go into 2012. And if I had to take a guess, I think this year will be more about home. After all the adventuring that I've done in this last year, I really like where I've landed at the end of all of it, and I'd like to stay here for a while. I'm making plans to do crazy things such as leasing my own apartment, one bedroom thank you very much, and buying furniture - my own TV set, my own couch! I know, craziness. I also have plans to make friendships outside of the yoga studio (see for example Thursday nights) and explore all the lovely restaurants that Providence has to offer. I also have a fantasy about rescuing a puppy, but we'll have to see about that one. I seem to have committed to some hang-gliding plans for the summer, so that should be exciting. And yes, I will keep this blog alive!
Best wishes to all for a fun and/or sweaty New Year's Eve and a very happy New Year!
Witness to the arc towards the sun."
- The Decemberists
Happy New Year, all! I imagine that some of you have already crossed the line into 2012. I've still got a few more hours left to 2011. I'm heading out pretty soon to take the 10:30pm yoga class - finishing at midnight, of course! - but right now I'm happily relaxing at home with a cup of tea and some good music. (The lines that I put up at the top of this post are the first lines of one of my favorite albums this year.) Just enough time for a blog update!
Compared to 2010, this past year was significantly less dramatic. 2010 was all about change, change, change - finishing/quitting grad school, getting to teacher training, finishing teacher training, moving cross country (again), and starting my new life as a yoga teacher.
This year, I've just kept on that trajectory. If 2010 was a year for change, then 2011 was a year for expansion. It's been a full year of full-time yoga, and it's been fantastic. All together, I must have spent at least 2 months out of the year travelling - weeks of guest teaching in Kentucky, Virginia, Alabama, and Rhode Island, plus a really solid visit to teacher training in Los Angeles, plus the wonderful craziness of Bonnaroo Music Festival (which was definitely a highlight). In between trips, I have been firmly planted in Baltimore (up until recently), just teaching and teaching and doing my thing, trying to learn new things and get better at my craft. I made some wonderful friendships, all over the place but especially in Baltimore, that are sure to last for a very long time. A good year!
There have been some ups and downs, some personal frustrations, but overall it's really been fun.
I think Abraham is totally onto something: "The basis of your life is freedom; the purpose of your life is joy."
(Tangent: Heard of Abraham? Here's the best summary. It is woo-woo as all hell and I'm not sure if I believe half of it, but my god, most of the stuff that comes out of Esther Hick's mouth is just spot on. I get such a kick out of it.)
I know I haven't updated since my move to Rhode Island. If I had to summarize my feelings about my new job/location in two words, they would be: "fucking fantastic." It's great being close to home and close to Boston again. I've seen lots of my Massachusetts yoga family this month, and I hope to see even more Boston people next year! The West Roxbury advanced class Tuesday is back on my permanent schedule, which makes me so happy. (My schedule requests to my new boss Molly were as follows: I need Mondays off completely, Tuesday mornings off for advanced class, and Thursday nights off for swing dance class.) The studio has a permanent staff of four teacher right now (plus a rotating cast of visitors), and three of us are all around the same age and experience level, so we are getting along great. It's like having siblings - we do fun things together like going out to dinner, seeing movies at the mall, and baking a tray full of brownies in the shape of Santa hats for the annual Solstice party. Attendance at the studio has been booming this month, and we all anticipate that January will be even crazier - people around here just can't get enough of the yoga!
So onwards we go into 2012. And if I had to take a guess, I think this year will be more about home. After all the adventuring that I've done in this last year, I really like where I've landed at the end of all of it, and I'd like to stay here for a while. I'm making plans to do crazy things such as leasing my own apartment, one bedroom thank you very much, and buying furniture - my own TV set, my own couch! I know, craziness. I also have plans to make friendships outside of the yoga studio (see for example Thursday nights) and explore all the lovely restaurants that Providence has to offer. I also have a fantasy about rescuing a puppy, but we'll have to see about that one. I seem to have committed to some hang-gliding plans for the summer, so that should be exciting. And yes, I will keep this blog alive!
Best wishes to all for a fun and/or sweaty New Year's Eve and a very happy New Year!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Disperse and Come Back
The last time I wrote, I was enjoying the scene and sights in Mobile, Alabama. Since then, I feel like I've spent every week unpacking and repacking my bags. I extended my stay in Mobile when another teacher fell sick and got back to Baltimore just in time for a weekend house-sitting gig. Once that finished, I had to immediately pack up all the things in my apartment to make space for my friend Lauren's return. (I had been subleasing from her while she was at teacher training.) Now Lauren and I are sharing her apartment temporarily, although I've only been here for half the time, because I went home to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving just a few days after she got back to Baltimore.
And the big news - might as well say it here at the beginning of the post - is that I'm only going to be in Baltimore for six more days. I'm teaching my last class here (for now) on Saturday morning, then I'm driving up to Philadelphia to spend the weekend with a friend from California, and then on Monday I am driving to my new home in Providence, Rhode Island! And yes, of course I will still be teaching yoga. I'll be at Ocean State Bikram Yoga in Pawtucket, just outside Providence. It's a beautiful new studio that just opened in last summer. I visited as a guest teacher last August and had a great time, and they've been saving a spot for me there ever since Labor Day.
This week is bittersweet. I feel sad about leaving all my great friends and students in Baltimore, but I'm absolutely thrilled to move back up to New England. I grew up in western Massachusetts, I went to college in Cambridge, and I got started on my yoga path in Boston. (Providence is only about an hour from Boston.) By the time I left Boston in 2008, I already knew that I was going to be a Bikram yoga teacher (eventually, in the future). So I have a lot of ties to that area, and it will be amazing to live up there again and be closer to both my families - my parents and my yoga family.
I was living in my first apartment in south Boston - okay, technically Dorchester - when I started thinking like a yoga teacher. I started thinking about the dialogue and the teaching and the students, and I started dreaming about the view from the other side of the podium. I had wonderful supportive teachers at the downtown Boston studio, especially Jill, Brad, and Tomo, and I also started venturing out to the West Roxbury studio where I met Diane, Teri, and so many of the other people who have become my friends and mentors. The teachers let me tag along with them to lunch every week, and I picked up some priceless information at the lunch table over pickles and pizza. I've visited that block on Centre Street almost every time I've gone back to Boston over the past three-and-a-half years, and it's always been a home to me. So yes, I'm happy about this move - I feel like after all these years of wandering and exploring and growing, I finally can go back and be home. At least for a while, until my feet get itchy again!
Meanwhile, the past couple of weeks have been amazing. The best part has been taking class with Lauren. I've probably mentioned her here before. (Let's be honest, I'll talk about her to anyone who stands still for more than a minute.) She was a beginning student of mine just one year ago. She came in with a Groupon and came just a couple times a week. Then I tricked her into signing up for the 60-day challenge, and the next thing I knew, she had turned into a serious, kick-ass yogi! She's lost over 100 pounds with the help of the yoga - it changed her life completely. In June, she decided to become a teacher, and I helped her study dialogue by the pool all summer. This fall, she rocked out teacher training. (Bikram loved her and her amazing backbend.) And on November 23rd, she taught her first class!
At teacher training, people always talk about how you "close the circle" when you teach your first class. Well let me tell you - there's a whole other circle that closes when you first take class from somebody who used to be your student! She's taught 6 classes now, I've taken 3 of them, and each one has been better than the last one. I don't think I've ever been so proud of somebody other than myself! This may be how parents feel. My first yoga baby....
I'm sharing Lauren's apartment right now, so we've been seeing each other constantly. This means I have been hearing all about her teacher training withdrawls! She misses her TT friends so much. I remember what that felt like. All day long I hear, "oh, Tereza commented on my Facebook photo".... "oh, I got a message from Mithu".... "oh, Yael taught 2 classes today".... It is heartbreaking!
But I keep trying to tell her (and she probably doesn't believe it yet, but eventually she'll find out on her own) - she hasn't really lost any of these people. They are still there, and she will see them again.
This is what we do, as Bikram teacher. This is how we are. At teacher training, you learn to live in this giant yoga bubble. You're always surrounded by other yogi, trainees and teachers, from all around the world. And after 9 weeks, you disperse. Everybody catches an airplane, and the group spreads out to all the corners of the world. And it's very sad, when that bubble pops. You feel like you'll never see those friends again.
And then... you see them again. All of our paths criss-cross across the globe. At one time or another, all those connections come back. When I went to Kentucky last summer, I ran into Mike from Malaysia, who now lives in New York. The last time I was in Boston, I saw Ben from Australia in a yoga class. Every time I got back to visit training, I reconnect with other people who I've known - half the staff of this last TT were from my training! Every time I go to a seminar or a master class, I see familiar faces. I have friends and teachers who I only get to see once a year, but I always know where to find them and I know that their doors are always open to me. My friend Teri's rule is, don't even ring the doorbell, just let yourself in. The last time I went to her house, I punched in the door code and harassed her cat until she came back from grocery shopping. It's a family.
This weekend, I went down to D.C. for a couple days of yoga with the international champions, Joseph and Yukari. This was the first time I've met Yukari, but I've known Joseph for years. The funny thing is, I can't remember how I met him. I've seen him at seminar and trainings, and I've seen him compete many times, and at some point I guess I introduced myself or someone introduced me. So now whenever I run into him, once or twice a year, we say "hey!!" and "how are you?!" and have a nice hug. Yoga family!
Lauren came down with me for the advanced class on Sunday, and she couldn't believe that Joseph and Yukari were here in D.C., because she had just met them a couple of weeks ago in LA. All day it was, "I can't believe you're here!" The class was at the Tenleytown studio, where neither of us had ever been, but of course we knew a couple of the teachers there. I knew the owner from a seminar, Lauren knew her son from a posture clinic, and I knew one of the other teachers (Yasmin) from our mutual friend Charlie Hubbard. I even ran into a student who reads my blog - Hilary Glassman, here is your shout-out!
Lauren and I had a couple of great classes - the champs absolutely killed us or maybe we just killed ourselves. They were so gracious and helpful, with lots of tips and encouragement for everybody. Lauren was amazed at how much attention they gave us, how generous they were with their time and energy.
And I just keep telling her - yes. This is how we are. This is our family. Your family, too, now - welcome to the family. Do you understand yet? Can you believe it? I know, it takes some time to sink it. It seems too good to be true. But this is who we are, and this is what we do. Share, teach, grow. We disperse for months and then come back together. You'll see your friends again - and the people who pissed you off, too, you'll probably see them again, and sometimes you'll even see them in a better light the second time around.
The next time I write, I'll probably have left Baltimore already. But Baltimore's been my home for the last year and a half, and now it will always be a home for me. I know which doors to knock on, and believe me, I'll be back. I just need to go back to New England now and have some time with another part of my family. I'm going to meet more students, more teachers, and let my family grow even bigger.
In yoga, you never lose - you only gain.
More later, from the other side of the move!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Our Expanding Universe
This is a long one. Are you sitting comfortably??
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On my drive back to the apartment after teaching yoga tonight, I heard a great interview on Fresh Air on NPR. Terry Gross was interviewing an astrophysicist named Saul Perlmutter who just last month was (jointly) awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. His team does research on supernovae and the expansion of the universe. (Kind of like my little sister. No really, she is a Ph.D. student in astrophysics.)
Anyway, this Perlmutter guy was doing some research on the rate of expansion of the universe. Everyone know that the universe is expanding, right? It has been expanding since the Big Bang. And according to logic and intuition, that expansion ought to be slowing down due to the effect of gravity - stuff attracts other stuff. Perlmutter's team set out to measure how quickly this expansion was slowing down, which seemed like a cool project. But once they got the data and crunched the numbers, they found the opposite of what they had expected. The expansion isn't slowing down - it's speeding up.
This is a cool result which certainly deserves the Nobel Prize, but the really funny part is how nobody can explain exactly why the universe is expanding at a faster and faster rate. There are lots of theories, all involving something called "dark energy" which basically - to my understanding - fills up the empty spaces in the universe and is multiplying. I think there must be a Doctor Who episode in there somewhere.
In my favorite part of the interview, Terry Gross asked Saul Perlmutter what the physics community would do if they ended up disproving some theory or law that had previously been validated. What if, for example, they found that part of Einstein's theory has been wrong and they had to go back and revisit it? Now, until this point in the interview, Perlmutter had come across as the type who doesn't really get out much - he spoke with the sort of halting, breathless speech pattern of either a non-native English speaker or a total geek. (Possibly he is both.) But when Terry asked him that question - what if something we "knew" was true turned out to be wrong? - he answered with the enthusiasm of a little kid:
"That would be our favorite thing!"
He went on to say how wonderful and exciting it would be for all the physicists if one of their theories were proven wrong, because then they could go back to the original problem "and get another crack at it."
What a fantastic worldview, right?
Now back to me (in case you are wondering where I am going with this). I was not listening to this broadcast while driving my little Toyota Corolla around a city in the northeast, as you'd expect. I was listening to NPR on the Mississippi Public Broadcast, in Mobile, Alabama, driving around after yoga class in a big Ford pick-up truck.
Let's talk about questioning assumptions and changing worldviews. Because I am a bleeding-heart liberal hippie, lifelong vegetarian, born and bred in Massachusetts, blue-state registered Democrat, city girl since age 17, and a goddamn professional yoga teacher, and I just discovered that Alabama is friggin' great!
If you would like a soundtrack for this part of the post, here is a video of the band from St. Louis that I saw live at an Irish Social Club in midtown last night.
Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three "La La Blues" from Filipe Bessa on Vimeo.
- The music you are listening to is by Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three. I saw them play on Sunday night at a neighborhood hangout spot called Callaghan's Irish Social Club. It really is a social club - it's the spot where everyone who lives in the neighborhood hangs out. They have live music at least once a week, and everyone knows everyone. I mean, I ended up hanging out with a woman named Lisa (friend of a friend), and she could pretty much say "hi" to everyone who walked by. It was a tiny place and super cool - wouldn't have been out of place in South Boston. Lots of friendly people, and I loved the music. I ended up chatting outside with Mr. Pokey LaFarge for 5 minutes during the band's break, and it turns out they had just come down from a tour in the northeast. Besides playing the Newport Folk Festival, they'd also played the Iron Horse in Northampton (about 10 minutes from the house where I grew up) and they'd played (wait wait don't tell me) Club Passim in Cambridge. We had a fun chat and I explained to Pokey about Smoots. (This is an MIT/Boston thing - look it up.) He is from St. Louis, but his band has been touring all over and they were loving the vibe in Mobile. I told him about the Bike Shop and the sandwich place.
- After the band finished, I ended up going along with Lisa and a few other women to a late-night place downtown. Two of these girls, Elizabeth and Tracy, were recently married - to each other! Tracy told me all about it at Callaghan's - they had a ceremony down here in Mobile, and she said that everyone was a little "curious" about what the wedding would be like, but they just did it "really traditional." They had to go up to NYC to get legally married, so that was their honeymoon. They love the south. "The only bad part is that it's pretty conservative, but everything else is great!" We all piled into Elizabeth's Prius and went out for drinks, dancing, more music, and pool. There was one guy at the bar who kept trying to grind with all the girls on the dance floor, and Elizabeth just went up and started dirty dancing all over the place with him (she was a great dancer), just totally winding him up, to the great amusement of all the spectators, which only got better when Tracy stormed through like "What the f**k?! My wife is dancing with an asshole!" and then went outside for a cigarette.
Oh yeah, and I have taught some yoga out here, too! The yoga studio - Bikram Hot Yoga Mobile - is absolutely gorgeous. It's a pretty new studio, so the classes are pretty small, but the people who do practice here are totally serious about it. They're really good. Lots of the students here have lived and practiced in other parts of the country, but the hot yoga concept is slowly catching on with the locals, too. Everyone is friendly and welcoming, and they are happy that I am enjoying their city!
I started off this post by talking about our expanding universe. And all this was just to say, my universe is continuing to expand. My universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Exploring this city has been like a treasure hunt. I keep discovering these unexpected gems all over the place. This isn't even the full list. I'm still here for three more days.
I had plenty of vague assumptions and stereotypes about "The South", and most of them have been proven wrong. I mean, there is still plenty of conservatism and religion. There are some gigantic churches, and each day I drive past this sign that says:
JESUS DIED FOR YOU
WHAT HAVE YOU
DONE FOR HIM
which is just deliciously aggressive and Southern. But still, I'm driving through these tree-lined streets in the big old Ford, listening to bluegrass, on my way to the chiropractors office, and I'm having a great time. It's just like Sean Perlmutter, our physics Nobel Laureate, said on the radio. What if something you "knew" to be true were proven wrong? "That would be our favorite thing!" Because then you get to start from scratch and rediscover it all.
I am discovering Alabama for the first time and it is just my favorite thing.
See you Friday, Baltimore!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On my drive back to the apartment after teaching yoga tonight, I heard a great interview on Fresh Air on NPR. Terry Gross was interviewing an astrophysicist named Saul Perlmutter who just last month was (jointly) awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. His team does research on supernovae and the expansion of the universe. (Kind of like my little sister. No really, she is a Ph.D. student in astrophysics.)
Anyway, this Perlmutter guy was doing some research on the rate of expansion of the universe. Everyone know that the universe is expanding, right? It has been expanding since the Big Bang. And according to logic and intuition, that expansion ought to be slowing down due to the effect of gravity - stuff attracts other stuff. Perlmutter's team set out to measure how quickly this expansion was slowing down, which seemed like a cool project. But once they got the data and crunched the numbers, they found the opposite of what they had expected. The expansion isn't slowing down - it's speeding up.
This is a cool result which certainly deserves the Nobel Prize, but the really funny part is how nobody can explain exactly why the universe is expanding at a faster and faster rate. There are lots of theories, all involving something called "dark energy" which basically - to my understanding - fills up the empty spaces in the universe and is multiplying. I think there must be a Doctor Who episode in there somewhere.
In my favorite part of the interview, Terry Gross asked Saul Perlmutter what the physics community would do if they ended up disproving some theory or law that had previously been validated. What if, for example, they found that part of Einstein's theory has been wrong and they had to go back and revisit it? Now, until this point in the interview, Perlmutter had come across as the type who doesn't really get out much - he spoke with the sort of halting, breathless speech pattern of either a non-native English speaker or a total geek. (Possibly he is both.) But when Terry asked him that question - what if something we "knew" was true turned out to be wrong? - he answered with the enthusiasm of a little kid:
"That would be our favorite thing!"
He went on to say how wonderful and exciting it would be for all the physicists if one of their theories were proven wrong, because then they could go back to the original problem "and get another crack at it."
What a fantastic worldview, right?
Now back to me (in case you are wondering where I am going with this). I was not listening to this broadcast while driving my little Toyota Corolla around a city in the northeast, as you'd expect. I was listening to NPR on the Mississippi Public Broadcast, in Mobile, Alabama, driving around after yoga class in a big Ford pick-up truck.
Let's talk about questioning assumptions and changing worldviews. Because I am a bleeding-heart liberal hippie, lifelong vegetarian, born and bred in Massachusetts, blue-state registered Democrat, city girl since age 17, and a goddamn professional yoga teacher, and I just discovered that Alabama is friggin' great!
If you would like a soundtrack for this part of the post, here is a video of the band from St. Louis that I saw live at an Irish Social Club in midtown last night.
Now here are some things that have been awesome in Alabama!
- Went with studio owner Lucille, her husband Bill, and fellow teacher Devra to a first-Friday-of-the-month Art Walk in downtown Mobile. (Which by the way is pronounced Mo-BEEL, as in "automobile," not mobile as in "mobile phone.") Downtown Mobile is actually pretty cool, and the city has clearly put a lot of work into sprucing it up and making it an attractive place to visit. Lots of pretty lights and cool old building with intricate ironwork. Lots of local art and small bars. One really kick-ass chocolate shop, as well as a roasted peanut shop a little farther down the street, right across from the independent movie theatre which apparently serves beer - payment is on the "honor system." There was an art exhibit called "Paper Cuts" where everything was made out of hand-cut paper, and it pretty much blew my mind.
- We ate dinner that night at a restaurant called The Bike Shop. It used to be a bike shop, and in fact there are bikes hanging from the ceiling and I think you can still buy a bike there. Now they sell delicious Mexican food, and you can also order off the sushi menu from the Japanese place next door. Huge beer list, and I got lucky that they had my choice on tap. Delicious huevos rancheros.
- The scenery, of course, is beautiful. Big old houses, giant oaks and magnolias, and there are some great drives that go right along the Gulf of Mexico.
- Some of these radio stations are way better than the pretentious hipster one that I listen to in Baltimore. There are some good mix stations and MPB plays some awesome bluegrass and jazz on the weekends! And come on, we are just a stone's throw away from New Orleans.
- Great used book store - got three nearly-new books for $18. Some Sherlock Holmes, the first book in Song of Fire and Ice, and a non-fiction collection from the author of Fight Club.
- I don't eat (much) seafood, but I learned that the blue crabs that they get on this part of the gulf coast are the same ones that Baltimore is known for! They are only found in two places in the country - Baltimore, and here! Although 'round here I don't think they soak them in Old Bay seasoning.
- I had one of the best vegetarian sandwiches I've ever had in my life at the Mediterranean sandwich shop downtown. Grilled vegetable gyro with hummus and feta cheese, in fresh pita bread. For like 7 bucks. I could eat that every week. Also found another Mediterranean place that did a great Sunday buffet. Also ate at a Waffle House, just because.
- On Sunday afternoon I went to a Renaissance Faire, of all things! It was right near the Jersualem Cafe where I had lunch with Lucille and Devra, and one of the yoga students had mentioned it to me that morning. So I paid my $10 admission fee and spent the next few hours wandering around the fairgrounds being deeply entertained. Little kids whacking at knights with a stick, belly dancers, arts and crafts, lots of real swords, fried gator on a stick, an actual jousting tournament, homemade root beer, the best fire show I have ever seen, and also - for some reason - camel rides. Here is a sentence I just never expected to hear: "Why don't you want to go with Bubba and them on the camel?" Great mixture of accents - about 80% Southern accents, with the remaining 20% talking like they're in a Game of Thrones episode and shouting "Huzzah!!"
Have you run out of music yet? Here is another track.
Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three "La La Blues" from Filipe Bessa on Vimeo.
- The music you are listening to is by Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three. I saw them play on Sunday night at a neighborhood hangout spot called Callaghan's Irish Social Club. It really is a social club - it's the spot where everyone who lives in the neighborhood hangs out. They have live music at least once a week, and everyone knows everyone. I mean, I ended up hanging out with a woman named Lisa (friend of a friend), and she could pretty much say "hi" to everyone who walked by. It was a tiny place and super cool - wouldn't have been out of place in South Boston. Lots of friendly people, and I loved the music. I ended up chatting outside with Mr. Pokey LaFarge for 5 minutes during the band's break, and it turns out they had just come down from a tour in the northeast. Besides playing the Newport Folk Festival, they'd also played the Iron Horse in Northampton (about 10 minutes from the house where I grew up) and they'd played (wait wait don't tell me) Club Passim in Cambridge. We had a fun chat and I explained to Pokey about Smoots. (This is an MIT/Boston thing - look it up.) He is from St. Louis, but his band has been touring all over and they were loving the vibe in Mobile. I told him about the Bike Shop and the sandwich place.
- After the band finished, I ended up going along with Lisa and a few other women to a late-night place downtown. Two of these girls, Elizabeth and Tracy, were recently married - to each other! Tracy told me all about it at Callaghan's - they had a ceremony down here in Mobile, and she said that everyone was a little "curious" about what the wedding would be like, but they just did it "really traditional." They had to go up to NYC to get legally married, so that was their honeymoon. They love the south. "The only bad part is that it's pretty conservative, but everything else is great!" We all piled into Elizabeth's Prius and went out for drinks, dancing, more music, and pool. There was one guy at the bar who kept trying to grind with all the girls on the dance floor, and Elizabeth just went up and started dirty dancing all over the place with him (she was a great dancer), just totally winding him up, to the great amusement of all the spectators, which only got better when Tracy stormed through like "What the f**k?! My wife is dancing with an asshole!" and then went outside for a cigarette.
Oh yeah, and I have taught some yoga out here, too! The yoga studio - Bikram Hot Yoga Mobile - is absolutely gorgeous. It's a pretty new studio, so the classes are pretty small, but the people who do practice here are totally serious about it. They're really good. Lots of the students here have lived and practiced in other parts of the country, but the hot yoga concept is slowly catching on with the locals, too. Everyone is friendly and welcoming, and they are happy that I am enjoying their city!
I started off this post by talking about our expanding universe. And all this was just to say, my universe is continuing to expand. My universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Exploring this city has been like a treasure hunt. I keep discovering these unexpected gems all over the place. This isn't even the full list. I'm still here for three more days.
I had plenty of vague assumptions and stereotypes about "The South", and most of them have been proven wrong. I mean, there is still plenty of conservatism and religion. There are some gigantic churches, and each day I drive past this sign that says:
JESUS DIED FOR YOU
WHAT HAVE YOU
DONE FOR HIM
which is just deliciously aggressive and Southern. But still, I'm driving through these tree-lined streets in the big old Ford, listening to bluegrass, on my way to the chiropractors office, and I'm having a great time. It's just like Sean Perlmutter, our physics Nobel Laureate, said on the radio. What if something you "knew" to be true were proven wrong? "That would be our favorite thing!" Because then you get to start from scratch and rediscover it all.
I am discovering Alabama for the first time and it is just my favorite thing.
See you Friday, Baltimore!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Life Is _______?
There's a popular quote by Helen Keller that says "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." With apologies to Hellen Keller, I just have to say that life is a fucking blast! What a trip!
I just feel like sometimes I'm having way too much fun.
Examples:
- I got to visit teacher training, run around LA for a couple weeks, and teach class to 400+ people a couple weeks ago. That was very exciting and hasn't quite worn off.
- We are having a beautiful fall in Baltimore and I've just been driving around the back roads with the windows down admiring the colors and listening to an awesome mix CD that my friend Liam made for me when we were visiting training.
- I invented an awesome crockpot recipe for pumpkin curry and it came out great. Before everyone asks, the ingredients that I used are: one sugar pumpkin, 2 cans chickpeas, 1 can tomatoes, 1 onion, some garlic cloves, curry spices, and coconut milk. Basically just saute the onions and garlic in oil for 5 minutes, add the spices, then throw everything except the milk in the crockpot and leave it all day. Then add the milk. It is super delicious.
- One of my best friends came down from Philly and my sister came up from College Park, and we had an awesome evening last night. Went out for sushi, then discovered a Greek festival at the church up the street. Drank ouzo and danced to the live band with all the Greeks. Then went back home when we couldn't stand up anymore and watched the Princess Bride. This is my idea of a perfect weekend.
- Bought a plane ticket to go down to Mobile, Alabama on Tuesday to teach for a week. Just because they had a need, and just for fun. I've never been to Alabama and I am excited! I'll be teaching with my good friend Lucy, who I met ages ago through her wonderful blog. I've never bought a plane ticket on such short notice - only 6 days in advance - and it makes me feel very free and spontaneous.
- Taught a billion classes as usual. Lots of beginners, some of them even more hysterically funny than usual. Very enthusiastic, too - makes my day.
- In between teaching classes today, went out for brunch at favorite restaurant and wandered through the shops in my neighborhood. Had interesting chat with a couple of old guys in an antique store when I walked past and heard one of them say to the other: "Have you ever seen the Mahabharat?" Attempted to see Chef Gordon Ramsay, who is at a restaurant across the street shooting Kitchen Nightmares.
- SAW CHEF RAMSAY!! After teaching class! Stood on the corner with a bunch of neighborhood kids and tried to watch through the windows. Eventually he came out and we got to see him up close! He was super sweet with the kids. He went up to them all mock scary - "Don't you kids have homework to do?" He is fucking gorgeous in person. One of the little girls asked if she could take a picture with him, and he said "Yes, of course." Immediately after the picture was taken, the girl started SOBBING with happiness. It made my night! Hoping to see him again tomorrow and actually shake his hand! He is a very sweet man - his production assistant calls him a "cupcake."
All in all, just way too much fun.
One of the other teachers at my studio was telling me this week, "I'm just so happy every morning when I wake up and I'm pain free!" (She's been practicing for years, but lately she's had some real breakthrough and is now in the best shape of her life.) I told her, "Yeah, I know what you mean - I'm happy every morning when I wake up and I'm a yoga teacher!"
And I mean, it's not like everything is sunshine and roses, 24 hours a day. Sometimes I'm tired, sometimes I'm sore, sometimes I get frustrated or bored with certain things. Blah blah blah. But overall? I just feel like I have some good karma going on and anything can happen. Life is a fucking riot and I am just happy to be here for it.
Now I must finish my pumpkin curry, eat some pumpkin ice cream, watch another episode of True Blood, and set my alarm for 4:55am. That's the wake-up call for teaching the 6am yoga - UGH!! So early! But hell, I don't really mind. Even with the shitty early morning parts, I wouldn't trade this life for the world.
I just feel like sometimes I'm having way too much fun.
Examples:
- I got to visit teacher training, run around LA for a couple weeks, and teach class to 400+ people a couple weeks ago. That was very exciting and hasn't quite worn off.
- We are having a beautiful fall in Baltimore and I've just been driving around the back roads with the windows down admiring the colors and listening to an awesome mix CD that my friend Liam made for me when we were visiting training.
- I invented an awesome crockpot recipe for pumpkin curry and it came out great. Before everyone asks, the ingredients that I used are: one sugar pumpkin, 2 cans chickpeas, 1 can tomatoes, 1 onion, some garlic cloves, curry spices, and coconut milk. Basically just saute the onions and garlic in oil for 5 minutes, add the spices, then throw everything except the milk in the crockpot and leave it all day. Then add the milk. It is super delicious.
- One of my best friends came down from Philly and my sister came up from College Park, and we had an awesome evening last night. Went out for sushi, then discovered a Greek festival at the church up the street. Drank ouzo and danced to the live band with all the Greeks. Then went back home when we couldn't stand up anymore and watched the Princess Bride. This is my idea of a perfect weekend.
- Bought a plane ticket to go down to Mobile, Alabama on Tuesday to teach for a week. Just because they had a need, and just for fun. I've never been to Alabama and I am excited! I'll be teaching with my good friend Lucy, who I met ages ago through her wonderful blog. I've never bought a plane ticket on such short notice - only 6 days in advance - and it makes me feel very free and spontaneous.
- Taught a billion classes as usual. Lots of beginners, some of them even more hysterically funny than usual. Very enthusiastic, too - makes my day.
- In between teaching classes today, went out for brunch at favorite restaurant and wandered through the shops in my neighborhood. Had interesting chat with a couple of old guys in an antique store when I walked past and heard one of them say to the other: "Have you ever seen the Mahabharat?" Attempted to see Chef Gordon Ramsay, who is at a restaurant across the street shooting Kitchen Nightmares.
- SAW CHEF RAMSAY!! After teaching class! Stood on the corner with a bunch of neighborhood kids and tried to watch through the windows. Eventually he came out and we got to see him up close! He was super sweet with the kids. He went up to them all mock scary - "Don't you kids have homework to do?" He is fucking gorgeous in person. One of the little girls asked if she could take a picture with him, and he said "Yes, of course." Immediately after the picture was taken, the girl started SOBBING with happiness. It made my night! Hoping to see him again tomorrow and actually shake his hand! He is a very sweet man - his production assistant calls him a "cupcake."
All in all, just way too much fun.
One of the other teachers at my studio was telling me this week, "I'm just so happy every morning when I wake up and I'm pain free!" (She's been practicing for years, but lately she's had some real breakthrough and is now in the best shape of her life.) I told her, "Yeah, I know what you mean - I'm happy every morning when I wake up and I'm a yoga teacher!"
And I mean, it's not like everything is sunshine and roses, 24 hours a day. Sometimes I'm tired, sometimes I'm sore, sometimes I get frustrated or bored with certain things. Blah blah blah. But overall? I just feel like I have some good karma going on and anything can happen. Life is a fucking riot and I am just happy to be here for it.
Now I must finish my pumpkin curry, eat some pumpkin ice cream, watch another episode of True Blood, and set my alarm for 4:55am. That's the wake-up call for teaching the 6am yoga - UGH!! So early! But hell, I don't really mind. Even with the shitty early morning parts, I wouldn't trade this life for the world.
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