Leaving India

I have now packed up and I’m ready to leave for Sri Lanka. These four weeks in Pune has been amazing and it has gone too quickly. I have learnt so much but I feel like I have only just started and it would have been good to have another two weeks here to really get into a routine with daily practice. This is where the hard part comes in; I have to keep practicing and pushing myself on my own!

Some days ago I had just had my after-yoga nap when I read an article where a Norwegian professor was expressing her worry about how more and more women only are doing ”relaxing” exercises such as yoga and pilates. She said she had nothing against yoga but she was worried women doesn’t build the muscles they need by not lifting weights or running and yoga is not enough. She clearly can never have done yoga!

I can tell you I have been to countless body pump classes, spinning classes and running but I have never felt as strong as I do now after practicing yoga for 1,5 year. It really strengthens the whole body from your little toe to your little finger, this especially in Iyengar yoga. You will notice this as you start practicing because you will get sore muscles where you didn’t even realize you had muscles. So I think we need to get this professor to do a yoga class before she gets sick of worrying about all the women who doesn’t do any other exercise than yoga. 

Of course there is different types of yoga and some classes will be more restorative than others, and that is the good thing too; you can decide whether you want to go hard or take it easier with a slower class (or in your home practice).

Best way to start the morning: 7am yoga class and then fresh coconut!

 Last week a lovely German girl joined the class and it has been so nice to have someone to discuss the classes with. It is actually quite funny because we’re exactly the opposite from each other; she comes from a background as a professional dancer and is super flexible and overdoing the poses so in that way she has to work really hard to hold herself back, whereas I come from a background with playing football and other physical sports and have to push myself so hard to even be able to half get into some of the postures. In that way we have been able to learn how to work with different bodies as Gulnaaz has showed us techniques how to solve the different challenges we have and it has been very interesting. Being over flexible can be quite a challenge, as you have to work extremely hard to hold back and to control your muscles. I was saying to Niloufar (the German girl) it looks much better when she does yoga because from the outside it looks like she goes perfect into the postures compared to me who is trembling, shaking and struggling to get into some of the postures. Gulnaaz said I will learn how the body work through pushing myself and working through the postures, but Niloufar has to hold back to build muscles to control her body so in many ways this is actually harder than what I have to do (even though it looks much better!).

The one thing I am working very hard on is getting my knees and calf muscles together. I have to use so much strength to get them together but it is working, and after practicing with belts around my legs for two weeks to ”show” the muscles how they should be working I can see so much improvement; getting my knees together while standing straight or sitting with legs straight used to be an impossible task for me. I also have to practice with the belts when I’m doing headstands and shoulder stands because then I can’t see my legs so I have no control of what my calf muscles are doing. (Gulnaaz showed me how to put the belts on for my legs so if you think you have the same problem it would be a good idea to talk with a yoga teacher before trying the same thing.)

 I have definitely gone through a few ups and downs in my yoga practice over the last month and there was a few days where I could easily have walked out and never done yoga again. Especially the forward bends can be quite challenging and confronting in a way. I don’t know but to me it seems like a lot of things, both emotional and physical, come up in some of the postures and I have gone through a couple of panic attacks and not so few moments of anxiety in the classes. The classes have only been one hour but they’ve been very intense and I’ve been sleeping a lot after so I must have worked through a lot of stuff with myself.

Although I feel like I have improved a lot I could have stayed here for another month, or even a year; it is an ongoing learning process and as soon as I get one thing right I have to correct the next thing. I was finally starting to get confident in Sirsasana (headstand) and when I told Gulnaaz this, she tells me that everything I have learned standing, I now have to learn upside down!

Handstand has always been my weak point for me; I was never able to do this as a child and I used to fall on my face. I remember going to school with cuts and bruises on my chin from attempting handstands.

Last week I had to face my childhood fears when Gulnaaz made me do handstands next to a wall; the first day she made me try to jump up for 10 minutes with no success what so ever. This was a little embarrassing because it was in the general class and everyone else got straight up and she told me to keep trying even though I didn’t have a chance. The second day she made me jump for 10 minutes before she finally helped me to get my legs up so I could feel how it is to get up, and then on the third day I managed to get up myself! That was such a great feeling; it is so cool when all of the sudden I manage to do things I’ve always thought as impossible for me.

Gulnaaz, Nilooufar and me

This month has been amazing and I have learnt a lot about yoga and also about myself. To make the last week even better, Niloufar and I were allowed to watch 20 minutes of a class at the Iyengar Institute. Gulnaaz and B.K.S Iyengar’s granddaughter were teaching a women’s class together and at first I didn’t see him but after five minutes I saw someone’s head upside down; guruji was on a ”whale” doing a passive backbend! After he had finished his yoga practice he got up and started correcting the students (and Gulnaaz), and he definitely takes yoga very serious. I heard him shout, ”If you don’t want to understand, get out!” Gulnaaz told me this was nothing; when Western teachers come to practice at the institute he is on fire, as he wants all the Iyengar yoga teachers to be as good as possible. Seeing guruji practice and then ”assisting” the class made the month perfect; it would have been such a shame leaving without getting a glimpse of him.

As we left the institute we saw him laughing from the window so I don’t really think he was angry, he seems to have a lot of humour, but he does take yoga serious. It is the same with Gulnaaz; she is such an open person always laughing and smiling, but as soon as the class has started she is suddenly like a strict army officer and there is no dear mum anymore. But I guess if you’re not there to do your best you can might as well go home. 

On my last night in India I went to a Persian Jazz restaurant with Niloufar and her friend Anna; it was such a cool place with amazing food and music. Next stop is Sri Lanka to visit the beautiful family I met earlier this year when Ben and I stayed at their little guesthouse for almost two months. I am so excited to see them again!