Week 1!

"Holy Fuckin Shit"....

The phrase above was exactly what came out of my mouth (and Heidi's too but she actually added some just as classy words to follow) after our first 2 and 1/2 hour class with Bikram on day one! No one or nothing could have prepared us for it or for this entire week actually. We have said more than once "why in the hell did anyone encourage this kind of torture". We have questioned the so called love all our mentors and teachers have for us, why would they want us to be put thru this? Ok, I am sure none of this is making much sense to anyone except those who have been thru this, so I will try and expain to the rest of you what we have been going thru, but I can promise this, it will be very hard to put it all in words because we have gone thru so many ups and downs already, and its only week 1!

Where to start, I guess meeting Bikram and the staff, Bikram was pretty much what I thought but smaller or shorter rather. He is in incredible shape for being 72...um I mean 210 years old! ;) He makes me laugh harder than I have in a very long time and more pissed off, annoyed, angry and emotional all in sometimes that same sentence. He loves to talk and sing, a lot. He is caring and loving and also tough and pompous too. He really is a trip. But all in all I can appreciate him. His yoga is amazing and I respect him greatly for the creation of this series. Now the staff, I gotta be honest, I heard horror stories of past staff and I gotta say, our staff is awesome! They really have been great. The director is from San Diego, coincidence? I think not.

Now class. Or the last 9 classes actaully, that brings me current, can you believe it 9 down only 90 or so to go, ugh! And by the way class here is 90 minutes ONLY if you're lucky, so far most of them have been 2 hours or longer! Today was the first day that I actually remembered that I was a yogi and that I loved yoga. The first 7 classes before that were filled with nausea (lots and lots of it), dizziness, shortness of breath, prolonged elevated heart rate,migrain headaches, extreme extreme body heat (0k, so since we are in southern mexico, it is impossible to drop the humidity in the room below 70%!! Not to mention the 105-110 degree heat being pumped in simutaneously, the room is a fuckin furnace and feels like a real torture chamber, which by the way I always thought was a bit of an exaggeration before, no, not anymore, its pure truth), my classes were also filled with tears and were the most humbling experiences of my life. I mean I considered myself to have a fairly strong practise coming out here, oh boy did I get knocked on my ass real quick. Picture a room filled with 320 people with vomit buckets all lined up in the back of the room, that no joke, get full occupancy every class. And the staff constantly carrying people out like a fuckin war movie, I swear, is this yoga we are doing or this some sick torure boot camp? A little of both I am convenced. So I had food poisening or detox poisening (whatever) every day so far until today,THANK GOD its over, at least for now.Not going to get attached to anything, as things change by the minute here. It was pure misery, just picture feeling pretty much the worst you have ever felt and then walking into a furnace to do hard core yoga for 2 hours twise a day and lectures for 8 hours on top of that, brilliant huh? I know you are all jelous. Ok I think that is it for talking about the classes for now, hopefully you get the point. But to finish there is good, I had an amazing class with Bikram tonight, it felt awesome and I was elated the entire 2 hours (ya, did I mention he likes to talk, tell stories, sing songs, oh ya all the while you're holding triangle for what seems like eternity?). I practised next to our new friend Crystal (from Scottsdale) and Heidi and we all rocked it, finally! It was definite light at the end of this first weeks tunnel.

So the first week of Posture Clinics, is the time that each and every person has to get on stage and say the Half Moon dialog for Bikram and the other 310 people here. Nicole, you would have been proud, Heidi and I both volunteered the first day and got great feedback from Bikram. He actually cut me off towards the end and said "SOLD!" He said some other positive stuff but I was a littel thrown off and cant remember exactly but I know it was good and he was happy with it. YAY!

We had the honor of experiencing one of Mexico's major holidays and it was quite the party. I have video (thanks to my new Flip, love it ;)) that I will share later. Anyways, picture New Years eve in Times Square and 4th of July all rolled up in one night and that is what happened here. It was so awesome and such an amazing expereince. The hotel was all decorated, big screen tvs everywhere waiting for 11 pm for the president to come and yell "VIVA MEXICO!" and then he chants "VIVA!" and everyone chants back "MEXICO!" and this goes on for a while, the enegry was wild. Live music, lots of food booths, face painting, kids running around full of sugar and adults stumbling around taking full advatange of the free tequilla shots being passed around. There were fireworks and confettti, the whole nine yards. Mexicans raelly know how to party. Anyways, I feel very lucky to have expereinced it.

What else, our room is still great. Heidi and I are doing well as roomies, when we are grumpy (straight pissed off is a little more like it) we just kinda keep to ourselves and the other one gets it and gives a little space. But truthfully I feel more than blessed to have here with me, she is a blessing, a comfort and such an amazing friend. Love ya Heidi, we will get thru this love. The hotel is so beautiful, it is almost ridiculous. We swim in the fresh ocean water pool after every class and bask it the beauty that surrounds us. This tropical paradise is definitely keeping me inspied. I feel so at home as it reminds me so much of Maui, our room looks out to a large mountain that to me resembles Haleakala. I feel very happy here. The food is fabulous too! Big bonus. And still, no sugar for me! Yippee! Even on our first nights dinner, which was catered for us and came complete with ice cream sundae's, I still didnt buckle, and I wont, actaully that seems like a piece of cake compared to everything else, seriously. For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, I gave up my sugar addiction for these 9 weeks and intend on conquering and diminshing it for good. Not that I will never eat suagar again but maybe just not everyday, hey that would be good.

The people, the friends, the experience in it self is all wonderful. Truly. I mean, I can honestly say the first few days I was ready to pack up and say "Fuck That" but making it thru it now has shown me just how much strength I have. What does not kill me will only make me stronger and I swear I am going to be one strong ass chick when I get out of here, I am 110% sure of it! Wish me luck, I have a long journey ahead of me. I really appreciate all the love, prayers, and positive vibes you have all sent, please keep them coming! I want you all to know how much your support means to me, so please please, please send me some messages, comments, whatever, it is such a treat to get online listen to my playlist and read messages from all of you! I feel pretty disconnected out here and as they say out here, we are in a completely different realm right now, a entirely different reality, a whole new dimension really. No one can ever explain the craziness of this experience but I will tell you this, it is the hardest thing I have ever done and after every torturing hot ass yoga class (didnt I come here because I love yoga? ya.) I am almost in disbelief that I have survived it. So, truly, any and all the love you send my way I embrace and cherish more than you will ever know. I miss you all very much. I dont have a lot of time to think about anything else besides where I am in that particular moment in time but when I do get some air and take a look around (like tonight, Bikram gave us the night off) it is so encouraging to get word from those I love. Hell, just putting on my ipod and listening to my good tunes is comforting beyond belief.

So in closing, I hope you are all well. I love you all very much, more than ever before, as my heart is so full of love right now. xoxo

Namaste~
Sash


P.S. Mom, thank u so much for the necklace, I wear it everyday! I have received lots of compliments on it but really it just makes me feel close to you and reminds me daily of why I am here, so thank you, you will never know how much it means to me. I will cherish it forever. xoxo


P.P.S. I do apologize for the not-so-PG language, I am just being raw and real, so I apologize if I offend anyone.

9-20-08- WEEK 1 COMPLETE!


Today was the official completion of week one! Hell Ya! Only 8 more weeks to go!

Class this morning was amazing and I cant even express how much gratitude I have for ending the week on a positive strong note. I even had the thought of going to the optional class tomorrow morning to stay acclimated to the hot ass room but then thought again and remembered that I am not a crazy person.

I also wanted to mention that my days here are hella long, we usually get out anywhere from midnight to 2 am it really all depends on Bikram's mood and we are up at sunrise to start the process all over again, so that is why I have zero time to connect to the outside world. But again, I so appreciate the love you all have been sending my way and look forward to it like a child on christmas morning, so please keep it coming! It truly is the driving force behind me right now. :)

All in all, I am in really good spirits and am embracing this life changing experience fully.

Time to log off and get ready to head to dinner with the girls tonight, we have aquired an awesome little crew of beautiful positive yogini's from all over the globe to surround oursleves with! Its funny, we are all blondes too (except for one), I know, its a site to be seen for sure!

xoxox