Class #9, 2010

Friday 4 p.m. has classically been one of my most favorite times to practice. Something about kicking off the weekend right, with a crowd of others doing the same. Plus, I've always been happy with 4 p.m. because you still have an evening - getting home around 6, plenty of time to eat and still have some time. The 6 p.m., getting home at 8 p.m., feeling too late to eat and when you do eat, it's 9 p.m. before you settle in for the night...well, that has never really been ideal for me.

Last night class, with Melissa, was just right. She's an energetic, dialogue-heavy teacher who seems to have a knack for keeping me engaged in a way that seems special. I do her every command, and she is commanding! Her heat/humidity management is spot on - I feel taken care of, pushed and encouraged. Everything you want in a good Bikram teacher!

One thing I don't get is the people who continually do things that are not part of the class, even when they've practiced for years. Things they either corrected or made fun of you for doing at training. Like in Eagle, taking your leg out a foot to the right, tapping the floor, and then lifting it up and over your left leg. Unnecessary. Just lift up and over. Heavy nose-breathing - outside of breathing exercises, no one should hear your breath. And one of my all-time favorites: Slamming oneself into savasanas with a big "har-umpf!". Isn't that counter-intuitive? Slam yourself down into a resting position....great plan, sure to lower the heart rate... I mean, things happen. We all occasionally audibly squish, slap, burp...god forbid, toot. These things surely happen if you practice a lot. But the folks who make those things a choice in their practice rather than an "oops" - I don't get how that helps.

And all that said, we move through our practice at a pace which feels right to us. I was a terrible student in the beginning. For example, for a long time, I just didn't do the sit-up before final stretching after head to knee...just didn't. Nope. It felt unnecessary to me. Then a day when I thought: In general, if everyone else is doing it, I ought to be doing it. If no one else is doing it, I ought not to be doing it. And this, I think, is my point. While it's all our jobs not to let anyone 'steal our peace' as Bikram reminds us - and yesterday, next to an, how shall I say, individualist...I had to work at that - tell myself not to be annoyed, to let it go, to let that person be as they need to be for whatever reason they need to be. It's not my job to try to control anyone else but myself...on and off the mat.