Day 18:
November 18, 2013
Today is a new day.
After a robust weekend and long post yesterday, I am going to take it a bit easy on myself and keep it short today. Eighteen days in and feeling great. (Though I do feel like I am fighting a little cold). I dialed it back today to just one session. Let’s say this writing is written in Child’s Pose. Ahhh. Relax!
Source: Momma’s Gone City
Today’s class selection was the 75-minute Traditional Hot Yoga with Rick. I started realizing today that my initial appraisal of the correlation between the Bikram class and the Traditional Hot Yoga (THY) series is true only in the broadest sense. The classes in fact are quite discrete.
Tonight’s THY seemed substantially more free than I recalled from previous classes. The order I had become accustomed to was spiced up with a few more flows. It seemed more playful. Even a bit of visualization at the end during the last breathing exercise, the Blowing In Firm pose (Kapalbhati in Vajrasana Pose). A great class overall.
I noticed that during the last two sessions I drank a full quart of water, running out of water before class finished. 32 fluid ounces! I have not drunk that much in any of the classes before. It’s a little distressing because I find it distracting me from my practice and moving my awareness to the door and the water fountain. I am guessing it’s because of the 9 hours of yoga I practiced from Friday to Sunday. But either way I haven’t left the room yet and I have no intention of starting. So I need to be more mindful about my water consumption.
Rick shared a story about his experience training with Bikram that people would bring in giant two-liter bottles filled with ice water, noting that one of the instructors told them that no amount of cold water was going to quench their thirst while practicing. Rick suggested that 16 ounces of warm water should be sufficient. I am not sure about that volume, but I intend to be more mindful of my water consumption…before, during, and after each session.
Eighteen days in and I am starting to hear comments from folks both inside and outside of the studio that my body is changing before their eyes. I am noticing it too. Stomach shrinking. Everything toning up. It’s pretty amazing how my body is shifting right now. Depending on where I land at the end of 30 days I may have to keep the intensity going a bit longer, because I am on track to achieve a few long-held goals related to my body’s shape in the not so distant future.
Rick and I discussed last night’s post and a bit about today’s practice and literature as well. After reading yesterday’s blog post, Rick made a fair critique. He suggested that his first impression was that maybe I am thinking too much about all of this. Funny thing. Anybody who knows me well would totally agree, in almost all of the things I get up to. It is a curse. It is a blessing.
I have also learned that my presence may be causing some nervousness or stress to the instructors. I have wondered what effect this blog might have on the them. Does my presence cause some teachers to be more conscious of their dialogue and how they run the class? Are teachers changing or not saying things they might otherwise say because I am in the room?
Well, last night I had this fear confirmed in conversation. From two sources. Has my presence and this writing effort invoked what’s known as the Hawthorne Effect (AKA the Observer Effect)? It would seem so. According to Wikipedia, the Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect of their behavior, which is being experimentally measured, in response to the fact that they know that they are being studied not in response to any particular experimental manipulation.
To those instructors who may be concerned, hopefully 18 days into this challenge I’ve demonstrated a student’s mind rather than a critic’s pen. Please know you aren’t the subject of any experiment. I won’t be using this writing effort to criticize you in any way. That’s not the point. And the record of writing speaks for itself. Each and every class and instructor has been rich with opportunities to learn from and expand myself. Each of you has been wonderful. That’s not going to change.
Here’s a quote: To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am breathing easier because of you! Thank you. Namastè.
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