Back To School
“Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire.”
William Butler Yeats
Day one of 57 days of yoga school has just begun. And tomorrow I have my first (maybe ever) 5:00am morning rising. I am an awful and vicious morning person–I feel that this experience will either surmount this issue or solidify it. Hoping sincerely for the former to happen. The latter would be detrimental to household harmony and inner balance that is the ultimate goal of this whole excursion into self.
I am a bit intimidated by this intensive monastic retreat into yogic curriculum during which 5:00am rising is mandatory for 7 days a week for 6:00am meditations, as well as 7 yoga classes a week, 2 three-hour sessions of yoga scholastics Tuesday and Thursday nights, breathing class and advanced yoga on Sundays, and no meat, fish, eggs, music, television, internet only sparingly (I count my blog as my one indulgent foray into the cybersphere for this journey), alcohol, smoking, ect.
The isolative nature of this process is one concern as with my husband a meat-eating, television watching, music listening, internet scouring, smoking (one habit I wish he would leave behind) individual plus both of us avid movie-goers…with my newfound passion project afoot we have little in the way of compatible schedules and extracurriculars.
This foray into self, into body, mind, spirit and beyond is certainly going to test me and my life on many fronts. First, and foremost, being COMMITMENT. This is a 57 day commitment like nothing I have ever endeavored before and one that has to come in conjunction with all those other, already committed endeavors–like my fulltime job, and my recent addition of part-time work at another therapeutic facility. Plus dogs and husband–oh, my!
I shall have plenty of room to breathe on this journey but what about down time from my introspection and self-reflection and stretching muscles of mind, body, and will? My teacher training instructor made a joke at the beginning of our first session together tonight saying, “This is going to stress you all in new and intense ways. Teresa is a trauma therapist so when you guys have become traumatized by this strenuous experience, everyone can go to her.” He admitted, with a sly grin, he had waited since I signed up for this program back in August to say that joke.
My only question–where does the trauma therapist go with everyone coming to her? Hmmm. I will ponder the intricacies of my trepidation and exhaustion at the thought of exhaustion. One day at a time, right? It has to be. Day 1–check.
7 Responses to “Back To School”
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oh I am so excietd for you!!! YAY the journey begins!
can’t wait to read more!! Hope your early morning rise went alright (no coffee in teh morning???? ACK)
Lisa
sounds great! good luck. what kind of training are you doing? i read back through a few posts to try to get some kind of insight into what you’re doing, but couldn’t find any mention of it. would love to hear about it…
Girlwarrior–hey there! I have been meaning to discuss at further length my new adventure but it seems that the insanity that is me trying to juggle a job and a quarter and yoga school has me swamped and exhausted to the point of dissallowing commentary thus far! I hope to write a post Friday in more depth. I am studying in the Sivananda tradition and I will definitely expound more in my upcoming posts! Thanks for the interest…I will definitely be going in depth sooon as I get some delirium out of my system, aches out of my muscles, and coherence back in my head
.
Teresa
Lisa (aka ecoyogini),
Thanks for the support! It has been pretty insane…I am definitely not yet a 5 am person but I am becoming a bit more conscious every morning–although by 11am I want a nap! I will write more on it all sooooN!
Teresa
nice! looking forward to hearing about it. i just started a YTT program and it’s quite the journey. luckily for me, though, my training doesn’t involve 57 consecutive days of waking up at 5am…
Good luck to you and remember, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Although from a Buddhist perspective that could also apply to what does kill you…
Just kidding. I too have early-morning-dysfunction but I have to say that since my own YTT (only 21 days – not counting the rest of my life!!) I have been much better at rising with (or within a few hours of anyway) the sun – and it really is WORTH it! It has made a huge difference to the energy and vitality of my day, my tolerance and compassion, and my cheerfulness.
I can sympathise with your nervousness about how you and your husband will handle it – it can be really hard on a non-yoga partner to watch you engage in a self-transformation that they are “left out” of. Don’t forget to leave him an invitation ticket to the movie of your journey!
And good luck!!!
Bree-
. It is worth it, I agree although I wonder how long it will last after it isn’t mandatory in my life–my hope is at least a few days a week I can maintain it long term. I shall give him a ticket–actually he got one himself–forced of course as I had to practice teach a bit at home, trying to memorize my class, and he was my guinea pig…to his own displeasure and my amusement 
.
Thanks for the well wishes…I like your buddhist tome…although I will try not to die, literally, during the course
Girlwarrior–
Which teacher training are you doing? How intensive? How is it going? I am, somewhat painful as it is…well it’s really painful, but I am enjoying aspects of this 5am life…we’ll see though how that goes past week one…although somewhat of a rhythm is forming. Unfortunately much of that includes passing out the minute I get home 5 days at least of the week. Thank goodness for a helpful husband who has helped by taking up all the cooking, laundry, and doggie stuff–without that I would definitely collapse.
Teresa