just say no to burnout February 15, 2009
One of the most difficult aspects of yoga for me is actually listening to my body and taking it easy when I need to. I really don’t notice when I need to take it easy in life or yoga until I get super fatigued, feel sick or extra grumpy. The last two nights of my 10 day teacher training I just came home, vegetated, and slept. I was too tired to participate in the late evening classes. Last night I was relaxing and watching a little tv and I just zonked out at like 9pm. I woke up with my laptop on, lights on, after 4 hours of sleep. I had a headache the last two days too, which made it difficult to bring my best self to class each day but luckily the extra rest has helped and I think I will end this training on the top of my game. I really don’t want to get super sick after this like I did after my last teacher training.
The last few days have definitely been the most difficult due to the fatigue. We learned a lot of ways to enhance people in postures with Simon Park. Some of the assists were just too much, I wouldn’t really want to molest a student that way in class. I feel like I will definitely bring some juicy assists back to my classes though. It was funny, he was getting annoyed with our chattiness during class. I mean come on, we’re a group of 50 women teachers, we like to talk! I have a great respect for my teachers and the more I practice, the more human they become.
Yesterday we had a sweaty Valentine’s love class where we meditated on all the love we get from our working bodies, the love that is radiating from our inner being, the love we have for ourselves, while chanting om throughout the whole practice. I had to take it easy during this practice, but the full class made it so sweaty, it was kind of gross at the end. We ended with a dance party which I thoroughly enjoyed. I love her taste in music, a perfect combination of songs we knew and yogi songs. Shiva and I could definitely be friends off the mat. Shiva made me laugh when she mentioned how many people would be making love last night, the night of Valentine’s Day, and that we should all channel that energy. She also mentioned that it didn’t matter whether you were in love with someone, or wondering where your love is, or loving yourself for the moment, that we can all find a place to practice from and we’ve all experienced those different states of love. It was very down to earth and warming coming from a teacher. Check out two of our assistants who were feeling the love, Dorman and Shantel, who are expecting a baby soon. They were so cute I couldn’t resist.
It’s always funny to see how much yoginis, actresses, and other artist types love their mac computers! Mac has done a great job of focusing on that demographic. The other day we were trying to do a presentation on anatomy and the assistants couldn’t figure out how to get the computer to work with the projector. I realize that I am rare with my love of technology and yoga, and I also work with projectors and laptops quite regularly with my day job so I was glad when they solicited our help. I find it interesting though that most people who need help with their macs in the presentation situation don’t want to know how we fix it and get it to work. I’ve done this at Yoga Journal too. I think everyone in that situation experiences some type of adrenaline, myself included, I sweat and get all flushed in the face, so I suppose it’s logical. I will document it here for future reference: The mac was not mirroring the desktop on the projector screen, it was automatically extending the desktop. We had to go into display, then to some secondary screen that wasn’t obvious but it was the middle menu option within the display screen, and we found a checkbox that said something about mirroring the desktop. Voila!
Today is my final day of training and I am excited to go home! I miss my friends, my man friend, my kitty, my apartment. Future reference…I think a 10 day intensive might be a little much and doing 5-7 days is plenty of time. My yoga mat is thoroughly thrashed from all the Vinyasa. I also need to remember ear plugs, painkillers, travel coffee mug, more energy bars, like one a day, trail mix, apples, and a fun book that isn’t at all serious, and my veronica mars dvds. Adios, I’m off to my last yoga practice with Shiva of the training!
Leave a Reply