The Journal of a Bikram Yoga Teacher Trainee

Chapter 19: Tryptophan Dreaming

Turkey Day. I'm always conflicted about this holiday what with its genocidal origins. It's important to remember that for most American Indians this is a day of mourning. Still, it's a holiday about connecting with family and friends and giving thanks so I continue to celebrate it. Every year for thanksgiving Pam and I go to the beach with a contingent of our extended family and friends and this is the first time I've missed it since we began (seven or eight years ago). I'm really sorry not to be able to be there.

The Yoga College is having a turkey dinner but I had to bug out. It's not that I object to having a holiday dinner with my fellow trainees and the studio staff -- it's just that the dinner is going to be in that stinky swamp of a room that I spend far too many uncomfortable hours in. The thought of mingling my associations of turkey, family and gratitude with those of pain, sweat and voluminous body odor creeps me out a little. Instead, I went with eight other students to The Stinking Rose, a garlic-theme restaurant, for a quiet turkey lunch. It was very pleasant and reminiscent of what my usual thanksgiving dinners are like. I then went home and took Molly to the dog park (Tom and Josh went to SF to visit with friends). Later this evening I'll be meeting a few other students to see the Harry Potter movie. That's the last kind of thing that I would normally do for thanksgiving but since this training program has been all about tearing down old habits, defying expectations and rebuilding myself (physically and metaphysically) I decided to do something different. I just hope the theatre isn't in a mall...

I decided that I have to take some responsibility for having such a difficult time in class the last couple days. It's true that the heat was turned up on us without warning but it shouldn't have taken me three classes to figure out that I needed to adjust my practice to accommodate the higher temperature. The two classes on Monday were horrible and then Tuesday's morning class was the hardest one I've had during the entire program. Tuesday's afternoon class was a little better and the only difference was that I took it very easy. In the first couple of weeks I survived by proceeding very slowly and carefully and I was equally slow and gradual working myself deeper into the postures as the weeks went by. Then they pulled the rug out from under me by cranking the heat up. I think I've got it back under control.

I just came back from Harry Potter. It's not much of a movie. Little kids will probably like it. The preview for The Lord of the Rings was tantalizing and reminded me of how much I loved the books when I was in high school. Still, it was fun seeing a bunch of my fellow trainees outside of the studio and in street clothes. The theatre wasn't in a mall -- it was in Culver City which looks a little like Pasadena which, if you remember, I previously mentioned looks like a mall without a roof.  

Copyright 2005 E. Jennings

Posted with the permission of the author. Formerly the technical director of a national touring theatrical company and a enterprising web designer, the author now teaches at his own successful Bikram Yoga Studio. If you would like to comment or read additional excerpts of this journal, please email Webmaster@BikramYoga.com