I feel very happy this evening – Day 5 – of an early morning yoga intensive that I’ve been running this week in the Yoga Shed. Thank goodness it’s been scheduled for 7 am because by 8:30 the tin shed is starting to cook.
Tomorrow is the final session and we will do a restorative practice. A regenerating sequence is appropriate for these hot weather conditions and also as a sort of reward for the effort the students have put in this week.
Some of these students have made a 40 minute drive to come to the intensive, and god knows the time they had to get up to be punctual. Me, I just virtually roll out of bed, and I’m there 😉
I think that ‘intense’ yoga courses can be transformative just because they shake people out of lethargy and because they demand a commitment.
I had a student at Sydney Yoga Centre who was a regular at our early a.m. classes, and he would say that his higher self got him out of bed and on the mat in the morning, but his lower self would be coaxing him back to bed when he got home.
The lower self voice does get quieter eventually. How long it takes, it just depends.
Te vyaktasuksma gunatmanah
The characteristics of these sectors, whether manifest or subtle, are imparted by the fundamental qualities of nature.*
*The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, translation and commentary by Chip Hartranft.