name forgotten. My practice changed enormously this day.
Yet this all day posture clinic left me deeply depressed.
Quite the opposite of the Bill Graham Posture Clinic in San Carlos. This posture clinic has lecture the evening before. I was not expecting 50% of the all Day Posture Clinic to be devoted to sitting and listening to stories. I was not planning on sitting at all.
I was nearly naked and the room was not the least bit heated. San Carlos kept the studio warm at 85 degrees, so it was not hot but you were not getting cold.
And we did not do many, hardly any, postures in the first three hours.
Jim, who led the clinic, seemed to be an angry guy.
Most of the attendees were Bikram instructors, (people who have already drank the koolaid). By the time we had a break, I was so offended by some things that were said in the room that I was ready to leave and go home. When the break happened and everyone left the studio for the lobby, I hung back,di not want to open mycranky mouth, I mgight get be stoned to death, or drowned like a Salem witch.
Here are some things that got me riled up at the posture clinic-
The biggest thing to get me angry was the Dr. Story.
1. A story about doctors- Jim said,"Doctors consider an operation a success if the patient dies, as long as the insurance company pays, and Doctors get to go out on their yachts". I found this story highly, wildly offensive.
2. One of the instructors asked about a move that some students make in Pacshimitthanasa of grabbing their butt cheeks and moving excess flesh out of the way before wiggling backwards. Jim said this is wrong- just do the dialog. I raised my hand and attributed this adjustment to The Hot Yoga Doctor. (I have this book and refer to it often.) Anger from Jim, "I remember her from teacher training, she did not pay attention, She is no Dr, she is a Dentist) Not advocating anything just trying to provide context. Today in looking at this book carefully, I did not find this correction in her Hot Yoga Master Class Book. This is a correction I and many others have read somewhere for people who are obese. I need to retract the Hot Yoga Master Class book as the source of this correction.It must have come for a yoga forum.
3. The dialog. I am not fan of the dialog. What the hell is Japanese Ham Sandwich? It has meaning for Bikram, who spent time in Japan, but I have no idea what a Japanese ham sandwich is supposed to look like and I don't want to make my body into a ham anything. I am pink and round. Nuff said. Why not say Panini? That is squished sandwich I understand. Plus, I hate sandwiches, ( exceot paninis because they are warm) Sandwiches are a ruinous invention that took away civility and heat from lunchtime. The Ear of Sandwich reduced the lunchtime from 3 hours to 45 minutes, if you are lucky.
Jim was emphasizing that you must must must stick to the dialog, and not give any one specific person an option of adapting these beginning yoga asanas, not to allow the student to strive from some thing less than optimum form.
As soon as you give an student a modification, they will no longer try to do the correct posture.
4. I am that person. I was shown a modification for final spinal twist, and I have been doing the posture in a modified postiion way ever since. At the clinic the Yoga Champion came over and helped me do it the right way, it was simple. I was embarrassed at how much time I wasted doing this incorrectly because I had been given an OK to cheat. 5. There were 22 people in the room and Jim had a headset on. I hate HATE HATE headsets. When I read the clinic was at daly city, which has a large studio, I almost elected not to attend because it would mean amplification. Ican talk to 20 peole and not need a headset. The amplification which gives me a headache. Headsets are the instructors crutch. If there is only one person speaking, there is no need to amplification unless you intend for your message to be processes as shouting. It is a mental assault, psychological yoga warfare. Est-like training approach.
I stayed after for a class, even though there was headset and the teacher, Jim, when correcting people over a headset, (why not just stick to the dialog, as we are all being shouted at, at least shout at us with the same instruction) he
called all the women sweetheart--( SH in the blue, in SH the yellow)
but he did not call the men youngfella or boy.....
The young champion kept saying have fun, it's only yoga, and then I realized, I was not having fun. I was mad. It's only Yoga, I was hoping it could be something more.
I was hoping it would change me. It has changed me, but not in the way that I planned. This clinic changed me. No matter what has changed, I am, and remain, one old bitch.
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