The end of the ‘Mysore Story’

Ok, better later than never… its time to finish the story of Mysore. This will be short and sweet because I am writing several months after the event! In fact, all I really want to do is post the last of the photos.

The last blog entry, was on the 10th Jan – so really it was only 5 days in Mysore that I didn’t get around to blogging about. From memory, the last 5 days were a bit hectic – picking up contact lenses, last minute shopping and missions to the post office to send stuff directly to New Zealand.

I remember being very unsettled and finding the pranyama difficult, this was mostly because the travel was about to end and I was preparing myself to get back to ‘reality’, I was sorting out getting work and planning the eventual move back to New Zealand. My mind was revving up, filling up with plans and ideas and I guess I was a little anxious about returning home ‘for good’. I remember in the last week my yoga practice improved a lot (after pushing through that really difficult period) – I do remember thinking that it would have been good to stay longer. … even an extra 2 weeks! But, alas – all good things must come to an end.

I am so glad that I finished my Nepal/India adventure in Mysore doing yoga, it was the best thing for me… it was great to stay put for 6 weeks, slow down and focus on my mind, body and spirit (wow, that sounds so hippy). I loved learning about the yoga lifestyle, I arrived in Mysore thinking that yoga was just a form of exercise – I learnt that it is much much more than that.

I am so grateful for my teacher Vinay Kumar… he has shown me that it is actually possible to take control of my mind (very very difficult, but it is actually possible), he taught me the importance of ‘the breath’ and of course – he taught me so much about what my body is capable of in the form of the yoga asanas. I remember the first few days thinking ‘I’ll just be happy if I can touch my toes at the end of this’ and towards the end I was doing all sorts of amazing things… often I would be doubtful of my capabilities but Vinay always knew what I was ready for. He is an amazing teacher, I am so grateful for having the opportunity to be in his class.

So – that is the end of my Mysore story. Something tells me I will be back – Mysore has a certain charm and of course some great yoga schools. : )

Some photos of my little “studio apartment” in Mysore….

Here are some photos of where I lived for 6 weeks in Mysore. I stayed in a little ’studio apartment’, it was very basic but it had everything I wanted… even hot water!

My Crazy Dog Friend

It would be a shame not to mention my crazy crazy dog friend. Every day on the way to yoga this dog would come running out to greet me with an excessive amount of enthusiasm. I thought this dog was annoying but hilarious. He would chase me down the street, jump up on me and follow me for a good 5 mins before his little A.D.D brain would get bored and he would find something else to annoy.

A random mix of photos from Mysore…

Yoga photos

Jeanne (Charlies partner) was taking photos of Charlie during his last back bending class and took a few sneaky shots of me – she makes a great paparatzi!      It was really freaky to see myself in the back bending poses… being upside down is really disorienting so you don’t really have much of an idea what you look like!   

These are the two poses I was talking about in this blog entry.

Here are the photos [big thanks to Jeanne for taking them]:

The upwards bow

Vinnay helping me reach my feet after I bent back on my knees

The final pose... once I was there it was actually really relaxing!

Time is ticking…

Well… time is sneakily ticking a long… I only realized yesterday that I have LESS than 2 weeks left AND to make things worse (kind of) we have a moon day on Sunday which means no yoga on Sunday as well as Saturday!   Usually I would be happy about this but with only 9 yoga days (includiong today) left… I could do with the extra day!

News on the body front… Ive been noticing my muscles are coming back, it seems they went on holiday when I was traveling around the north.   My hips seem to have moved as well – this is good news (they were uneven and one was tighter than the other) but in the process I have pulled a muscle which is causing pain.    This means I cant do the full yoga series at the moment… : (    With only 9 days to go this is ‘rather annoying’.    

My reaction to the pulled muscle has been pretty good though…  possibly a sign of a more chilled out Julia?!?    Earlier when my yoga was being restricted by always feeling sick and dizzy in class I got really frustrated and angry (to the point of tears).   At the moment I am occasionally feeling annoyed that I can not practice my yoga properly, but on the whole I seem to be a lot more patient with my body.

In fact, I think generally I am a bit more chilled out than when I arrived in Mysore.  This is something my masseuse commented on the other day….he said my energy is a lot more settled than it was.   I wonder how long that will last?!?  I will have to make a real effort not to let life back in the rat race put me out of balance.    

No other news really, same old – same old.    The kid in the internet café has just cranked up some annoying sounds so I am going to go home for a big bowl of post yoga porridge!

Happy New Years!

My New Years was VERY quiet… but during the day I was thinking about everyone in NZ partying away… I was with you in spirit!    A few of the yoga people from my school went to some Bajans (chanting) but because I went to the evening back bending class I was too late to join.    There was a few parties in Mysore but I decided I didn’t really feel like partying with people I didn’t really know… so in the end I went out for dinner with a couple of people from my class, then headed home and crashed!    I woke up in time for midnight and watched the fireworks from my balcony.  While it was an unusually sober and rather solitary New Years it was a really nice one….   I felt peaceful and happy.

I have had a fantastic year in 2008 and have a really good feeling about 2009 -  it is going to be awesome, even better than 2008!

Today was a holiday – so no yoga classes.   I decided to do my own practice and for the first time I did the primary series all by myself.   I did it on the balcony in the early evening (when it was nice and cool) and it took me about 1hour 45mins (this is about right I think) – it felt like it took me 40mins though, the time went so fast!!

Other than the yoga session I haven’t done much today.  I just pottered in my little apartment….  I wrote out my recipes from cooking class, sorted out paper work, did housework and read – it was so nice just to chill out and relax.

While eating my coconut on the way to the internet café I realized that I have only got 2 weeks of this yoga lifestyle left… I’m going to enjoy every last bit of it –  I must also start taking (and posting) some photos!!!   : )