What is it like being in Mysore, regarded probably as THE heart of yoga (at least in the Ashtanga community)?
To be honest, I find it difficult to describe as so many imperssions are constantly entering my senses and you are trying to take it all in without judgement or attachments. Yesterday, we (Kerstin and I) were walking around like a bit in a daze and glad that we could follow Becc around for breakfast and organising sim cards, money, scooters, internet access etc.and of course having fresh coconut water at the infamous coconut stand (this is where many yogis hang out after practice) and its nothing like getting a fresh coconut being skillfully sliced open in front of your eyes and then handed to you with a straw to suck the beautiful juice - and once you are done with the water, the coconut is sliced in half and part of the shell is used like a spoon to scoop out the flesh. Up unitl now, my impression of coconuts was these hard, brown hairy things - these coconuts are different and big, smooth and green - I love them :-)
Walking down one of the main streets in Gokulam is probably much like any other Asian country (Vietnam, Thailand) with lots of little, chaotic stores where you can find things by seemingly random access and usually only with the help of the owner. Venture into the side streets and you have to keep your eyes peeled for little, inconspicuous signs that point you to a place that may do breakfast, lunch or dinner. I say 'inconspicuous' because it is often in private houses, so you actually may walk into a place for breakfast or a rug shop that borders onto the living room of the family that lives there.
And now on to the community here: It is a bit of a strange feeling and I am still gettng settled and getting used to the eclectic mix of westerners amongst the Indian community (which is completely normal, as Kerstin reassures me, that you feel a bit lost and confused at first and trying to find your place). You will probably be hardpressed to find another place in the world with so many healthy- and fit-looking westerners (yogis) and with so many different idiosyncracies, tatoos, accents, outfits and attitudes concentrated in one place. And some cafes are probably solely frequented by yogis (or so it seems) after practice - or really anytime during the day. That is the one thing that I am learning here: you have so much time for hanging out and eating and chatting and just being. There is no rush, no to-do list (apart from the first day, but even that was casual), no real plan of how your day will unfold as it will unfold somehow. Maybe it is this seemingly 'directionless drifting' that plays with my western mind and throws me off centre a bit and also the high concentration of Ashtangi yogis here and me not really being here for Ashtanga practice. I think it is easy to get tempted by one's own insecurities and become judgmental of oneself and others - but it is really again, one's own mind creating a mirage or mirror image of something that is only there in one's mind and not reality and probably being guided by the western mind of putting things into categories, evaluating, sorting and judging. What a great way of trying to let go of this while here! Because it is so easy to connect with people, talk, exchange stories or just listen - again, something that I have to get used to and challenge my somewhat hermetic lifestyle in a highly predictable environment to something, dynamic, open, unpredictable, friendly and surprising.
The teacher training will start on the 19th but Noah is teaching classes every morning from 6 to 7:30am at the Mystic School (a very nice, friendly place and Shashi, the owner, is a jewel!) and I went today for the first time and just enjoyed his style of practice which is completely different to the Ashtanga Mysore practice that I have been doing over the last month. It was a lot more subtle and focusing on alignment and little muscle contractions and how they feel and what they do to your body and posture. It will be really great to gain a new experience in this kind of more introspective yoga and I really look forward to learning more about different approaches to asanas and of course all the other remaining 7 limbs of yoga. And also training my mind to be open and receptive - like this evening, I will be doing a 'singing bowl' treatment which is a therapeutic approach to all sorts of ailments, where singing bowls are placed all over your body.
Will write more about this after I experienced it.
For now, it is just relaxing into the slower pace of life and letting impressions come and go like waves :-)
To be honest, I find it difficult to describe as so many imperssions are constantly entering my senses and you are trying to take it all in without judgement or attachments. Yesterday, we (Kerstin and I) were walking around like a bit in a daze and glad that we could follow Becc around for breakfast and organising sim cards, money, scooters, internet access etc.and of course having fresh coconut water at the infamous coconut stand (this is where many yogis hang out after practice) and its nothing like getting a fresh coconut being skillfully sliced open in front of your eyes and then handed to you with a straw to suck the beautiful juice - and once you are done with the water, the coconut is sliced in half and part of the shell is used like a spoon to scoop out the flesh. Up unitl now, my impression of coconuts was these hard, brown hairy things - these coconuts are different and big, smooth and green - I love them :-)
Walking down one of the main streets in Gokulam is probably much like any other Asian country (Vietnam, Thailand) with lots of little, chaotic stores where you can find things by seemingly random access and usually only with the help of the owner. Venture into the side streets and you have to keep your eyes peeled for little, inconspicuous signs that point you to a place that may do breakfast, lunch or dinner. I say 'inconspicuous' because it is often in private houses, so you actually may walk into a place for breakfast or a rug shop that borders onto the living room of the family that lives there.
And now on to the community here: It is a bit of a strange feeling and I am still gettng settled and getting used to the eclectic mix of westerners amongst the Indian community (which is completely normal, as Kerstin reassures me, that you feel a bit lost and confused at first and trying to find your place). You will probably be hardpressed to find another place in the world with so many healthy- and fit-looking westerners (yogis) and with so many different idiosyncracies, tatoos, accents, outfits and attitudes concentrated in one place. And some cafes are probably solely frequented by yogis (or so it seems) after practice - or really anytime during the day. That is the one thing that I am learning here: you have so much time for hanging out and eating and chatting and just being. There is no rush, no to-do list (apart from the first day, but even that was casual), no real plan of how your day will unfold as it will unfold somehow. Maybe it is this seemingly 'directionless drifting' that plays with my western mind and throws me off centre a bit and also the high concentration of Ashtangi yogis here and me not really being here for Ashtanga practice. I think it is easy to get tempted by one's own insecurities and become judgmental of oneself and others - but it is really again, one's own mind creating a mirage or mirror image of something that is only there in one's mind and not reality and probably being guided by the western mind of putting things into categories, evaluating, sorting and judging. What a great way of trying to let go of this while here! Because it is so easy to connect with people, talk, exchange stories or just listen - again, something that I have to get used to and challenge my somewhat hermetic lifestyle in a highly predictable environment to something, dynamic, open, unpredictable, friendly and surprising.
The teacher training will start on the 19th but Noah is teaching classes every morning from 6 to 7:30am at the Mystic School (a very nice, friendly place and Shashi, the owner, is a jewel!) and I went today for the first time and just enjoyed his style of practice which is completely different to the Ashtanga Mysore practice that I have been doing over the last month. It was a lot more subtle and focusing on alignment and little muscle contractions and how they feel and what they do to your body and posture. It will be really great to gain a new experience in this kind of more introspective yoga and I really look forward to learning more about different approaches to asanas and of course all the other remaining 7 limbs of yoga. And also training my mind to be open and receptive - like this evening, I will be doing a 'singing bowl' treatment which is a therapeutic approach to all sorts of ailments, where singing bowls are placed all over your body.
Will write more about this after I experienced it.
For now, it is just relaxing into the slower pace of life and letting impressions come and go like waves :-)
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