Day One- Coming Out

beep beep beep......my first thought was "it cannot be 6am already" but oh it was. Meditation time!!! Now anyone who knows me, knows that Im not really the sit down, be quiet and meditate person....actually I think all of my friends and family are quite relieved to hear that I am getting trained in that area, but I am afraid to say, its harder than it looks. Sitting still and trying to let all thoughts go out of your mind sounds pretty easy, but things just kept creeping into my head, not to mention the two dead legs and pins and needles in my feet I started experiencing within 5 minutes. From a sneaky peek at the clock I saw that there were 25 minutes to go...it felt like an eternity. However, at some point in those final minutes, I managed to find a silent kind of peace but then lo and behold a thought came in my head and interrupted me, followed shortly by the ting of our mentor's bell! I swear those beeps and tings are going to be the bane of my life for the next three weeks!!

Then came the YOGA!! The saving grace, the peace i find in challenging my body to contort into pretzel like shapes, my constant savior from depressed and angry moments, and also my friend in good times. This yoga class was wonderuflly inspiring. Vidya our teacher spoke so clearly and concisely, and as she spoke, she demonstrated the postures along with us!!! Not once did she sound strained or breathless, unlike our clumsy breathing and elephant like chataranga jump backs!!! I must say, as a class though the energy was great. This particular group on this teacher training course, apparently is the first in the history of this retreat to be ALL FEMALE!! now I cant work out if this is a great thing, as those men are distracting and of course all girls together mean-no make up necessary horrayyyy!! Or is there the possibility of it becoming like an all girls high school, I do smell a teeny weeny bit of competativeness between us all, as many of us are similar standards, and of course we all want to be the best! But so far, I think we're safe, especially after the afternoon class. I will explain but first I want to talk about LUNCH!!!!

wow....yum yum yum!!!!

The rice the rice,

It is so nice

Im supposed to be getting thinner

But I only want more dinner!!!

Is it possible, oh surely not me,

Could I turn out to be a closet veggie?

I thought I'd always eat meat, never had a doubt

But after these three weeks, I might come out!!!

Ok, so u get how good this veggie food is, I really thought I would be eating LESS not MORE!! Anyway, I shall try and control my greed and do lots of metabolism boosting postures in the meantime!!

The afternoon lecture on yoga philosophy was sooooo interesting!! Our teacher is very calm and oozes omnipotence. She began with talking about "the ego". The thing that we allow ourselves to be blinded by. When we feel any emotions, jealousy, angry, upset, even the good feelings, falling in love, its all about YOU, how it makes YOU feel. She wants us to look beyond that, to look beyond the egotistical clouds to feel the sun's rays, to be more than just a flawed, emotional person. As you can imagine, I was taking lots of notes all the while thinking, oh my goodness I have SO MUCH to work on, and I do!! But its a practice that can never be perfected, only improved. My favorite bit was when she compared the ego and the life we let the ego  lead for us to The Matrix. She said yoga is like taking the pill that Keanu Reeves took to wake up to the real life. To see the real truth of the world.

I think we were all incredibly moved by her passion and the sense behind the morals and ethics of yoga. Of course, in our modern society it is impossible to become at one with the universe and live on berries etc but we can adapt the lessons yoga teaches us to fit in with our personal lifestyles, as best we can!

Anyway, my computer is dying haha!!! I will go back to my dorm to charge it and will be back tomorrow!!

Keep smiling

Namaste xxxx