Not Exactly Like Back Home

On every trip Trice and I have taken abroad, we have gotten massages. Thailand had the best ones to date and were all about working the muscles and joints. Staying in line with tradition we decided to try an Ayurveda massage. Neither one of us knew exactly what to expect, but we just assumed it was like any other massage we have had. Nope. That would be the mistake of the century. Here is how it went.

I went into the room, escorted by two women, and was told to completely undress, underwear included. Red flag number one. The one young woman preceded to tie a small string around my waist and then took a piece of cloth between my legs and secured it with the string. Lying down on the table, for the most part completely naked except for my small shroud, with no sheets in sight. None to cover the bed and none to cover me. Red flag number two. Now, I have been through midwifery school and am not shy or modest, but this was a whole new level of exposure. I closed my eyes and tried to relax. The massage began with a pouring of oil, about the amount in a liter of soda, all over me. I was completely drenched in oil. Then, both women began to vigerously rub. Now for those of you who have never had the experience of a massage in the states, the chest/torso/butt area is usually off limits. Not so much here. All areas were game. This continued for about 30 minutes, with me flipping from from front to back like a little greasy fish. Once that was completed, the finale consisted of being placed in a steam box, where only my head poked out from the top.

This was an experience. Maybe not exactly the one I was looking for, but I am chalking it up to being a medicinal massage with lots of healing properties. That is my best attempted to see the rainbow:)

We took cooking classes today. I am so excited to possibly finally be able to cook something Indian. The food was so tasty and the woman was a joy to learn from. I have posed some pictures of the food that was made.

There is a festival going on this week that celebrates the harvest. In celebration the people paint the cows because they are part of harvesting the fields. I have posted a picture of a very pretty cow with her horns painted green.

I have been noticing that I have been posting far more about non-yoga things. I am not sure why this is. The yoga is why I came here and yet I have shared more about the culture and the "goings-on" than anything. I think I am still absorbing a lot about the yoga. The practice seems so personal at times, a process, that to blog about it would make very little sense to a reader. I am sure that time will reveal more and something worth sharing.

Chanel #5

Yesterday Trice and I went to the market in the center of town. I wish that I had take a picture to better describe the craziness of an Indian market. I will have to return and snap a few photos. Most of the market, it seemed, consisted of food, bangle bracelets, and vibrant colored sand (at least I think that is what it is). Are we were ambling around Trice happened upon an oil stand. Run by an older gentleman and his grandson, they quickly shuttled Trice and I behind the stand to show us how they roll incense. I was completely take away by his hospitality and desire to swoon us with his oils. After the incense demonstration he intoxicated us with his scented oils. He brought out each crystal bottle, had us close our eyes, and sniff. Ahh. He even had Chanel #5 scent.

As we were nearing the end, and he was bottling up the fragrances that we had purchased (let me tell you he is the best salesman I have ever encountered) he shared with us a little tip on how to use the oil. He took a very small piece of cotton and placed one drop of the oil onto it. As he is explaining how we can use this trick when we are going out to a party to make everyone think we are just smelling divine, he places this little piece of cotton in his ear! He says "you just tuck it right in and no one will know how you smell so wonderful." Now, this is not the funny part. Then he says, after smelling so nice all night long, when you get home you just remove the cotton and squeeze the oil back into the bottle. No waste! I believe Trice and I have just reached a new level of frugal.

I left his booth covered in Hugo Boss on one arm, Georgio Armani on there other, pink lotus on my wrists, and frankincense all over my arms. I am sure that I was a walking odor ball. I could smell myself and it was not pretty. Thank goodness for Dr. Brummers...does laundry and gets off body oil.

Practice went well today. I am still learning all the "goings-on" of the shala. It was very warm today and the sweat was literally dripping off my face. It brought back memories of practicing in the summer at Y2. Sharath came over for my drop backs again, but this time there was no pretending that I couldnt reach my ankles. He grab my hands and placed them on my ankles, and then made me shimmy up a little towards my knees. I am interested in how this is going to continue over the next few weeks. In the past this posture has brought me a lot of pain, but I have been toiling with whether the pain stems from emotions or actual physical limitations.

I have posed a few pictures: Trice rolling incense and some photos of the area. The big gray building is the shala. The white and red building is where our apartment is.

Laundry Day

We have been here for 3 days, 2 of which have been practice days. As we are traveling on the light side, with minimal luggage, we each only have three days worth of practice clothing. I have volunteered myself for the washing of the laundry duties, as Trice has so nicely brought the computer and I think it only fair. Now, let me state that I hate doing laundry at home...where all that it entails is carrying the clothes down the stairs, placing them in the washer, adding soap, and pressing start. Well, it takes a lot more effort here to do laundry. I have a whole new perspective on the situation. After practice we had a relaxing breakfast and headed home to do the laundry. I cant say that I have any expertise in doing laundry in a bucket. So, I threw all the clothes in the bucket, added water, added Doctor Brummer's soap, and mushed the clothes around. Unsure if this would actually clean the clothes I removed each article of clothing, added more soap and squished some more. I placed everything back in the bucket for a little more mushing and then rinse. This was all fine and dandy, but trying to get all the water out of the clothes in order to hang them was not the highlight of my day. I do not recommend anyone getting rid of their washer anytime soon. This is not a practice I will continue upon returning to the states:)

Practice was mysore style today. I was nervous as Trice and I sat outside the shala practice room, waiting. This is how it works. You wait until Sharath says "one more!" and then you very quickly haul ass into the room, place your mat down so you dont lose the space, run to the locker room, drop your back, and haul ass back to your mat. Much of my anxiety is relieved now that I know the morning drill. Practice was...hot and sweaty....so lovely. I relaxed into the flow of primary series. I am quite content with doing primary series and an greatly enjoying my breath throughout the practice. I did my back bends at the end, and waited for Sharath to come over for drop backs. In my head all I heard was dont grab my ankles on the first day, and so, I came close but did not force it. I feel like the first week is a bit like dipping my toes, then feet, then legs into the water. By next week, I think I will be completely submerged into the practice, the shala, the routine of it all.

Observations

Today is my first blog from India. While I have been here for 2 days, the lack of an electrical adapter created a situation where only quick and limited computer use was available, with Trice (my cousin) and I alternating 5 minute time slots.

We arrived in India at 2am on Saturday and began our journey with a 3 hour car ride to Mysore. What you ask did I observe from that car ride? Just this:
1. Yes, there are speed bumps randomly planted through the highway...yes, I said highway
2. There are no rules of the road. They are merely suggestions that you can choose to follow when it seems necessary.
3. Cows do not move when you honk at them, which in the end requires a quick swerve to the side to avoid crashing into its back-side
4. Flashing your headlights and honking = I am going to try to pass a huge truck, where there really is no room, and hopefully the other driver will move out of the way.

We arrived, thankfully in one piece, to quite a nice room. In comparison to all past traveling ventures, I would say that we are resting our heads in the lap of luxury. The bucket shower adds to the experience. The town is quite beautiful. It is considered a suburb of Mysore and seems to be on the more affluent side. The architecture of the homes is pretty extraordinary, and I imagine to be grand to live in. I will have to take some pictures and post them.

Registering at the shala was the first order of business. This is quite the process. As the shala is on the more expensive side, especially for India, this entailed that we go to the ATM where we preceded to take out 4000 rupees, in 100 rupee bills, multiple times. Let me paint the picture:
a. Place card in ATM
b. Get huge wad of cash
c. Stuff huge wad of cash into bag
d. Repeat 5 more times
It was quite the scene I am sure. The above picture is Trice counting out all the money to pay the shala...we felt a little rich, even if just for a moment.

We had our first practice today. It was led primary with a very steady and traditional count...just my style:) I was nervous. I was scared. I was excited. It was powerful to take that first practice in the home of Ashtanga. I am still a bit apprehensive and unsure of myself, but I am hoping that will fade over the next few weeks.

I have been thinking a lot about my practice and trying to make connections to why certain things come up on my mat (and even why other things dont come up on my mat). Aches, pains, emotions. I am hoping this experience helps me get a bit more clarity and uncover more of what is going on. In the few weeks leading up to this trip I have had a slight aversion to practice. I am not sure of why or where it is coming from, but it felt really nice to step back on the mat this morning. Maybe this is just the ebb and flow of yoga in one's life.

The other posted picture is Trice feeding the cow her leftover watermelon. The new solution to edible trash.

Food from the Soul. Practice from the Heart.

Yesterday I spend the afternoon with my dearest, bestest friend. We met at the farmer's market, in the rain storm, to get all the ingredients for a lovely lunch. Wet, chilly, and hungry, Elsa prepared a feast. Her cooking, I have to come figure out, is so good because it is make from the soul. She cooks with such joy, that it pours over into her food. We ate with out fingers (except the lentil soup), talked, laughed, and got to just be content and happy in the moment. Our delicious meal consisted of: blue potatoes, turnip greens, blood carrots (that is a made up name, but we got these blood red carrots only to find they were the regular color orange inside...who knew!) and lentil soup. Yumm...

Practice today was blissful. I am not sure what magic from the cosmos comes together on Sundays to make practice so great, but I am just going with it. A new teacher came today. Noah. I have worked with him before and I find myself fitting in quite well with his teaching style. Simple. Clean. To the Point. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed practicing under his guidance. He directed me on my gaze and some of the subtle points on my practice. I am stunned at how much power the gaze holds. I found great intensity in gazing at the tip of my nose in one pose (yes the eyes do cross...I can only imagine how silly I looked) and in another pose I lost all stability with my chin tucked down to my chest. This will be my practice point for a while...work the gaze. I look forward to continuing over the next two months with him. I am excited to learn and grown. Only four more weeks of my crazy clinical schedule and then I should be back to my practice full time. After suggestion from Noah I think 3rd series is drawning closer. We shall see.

After practice I grabbed a cup of coffee with some friends from the studio. Finally drawing back to the connection. The community. To home. We sipped hot coffee, talked yoga, and laughed about silly things. I took the puppies for a long walk today. It was lovely. The weather is beautiful and this day has been such a pleasure.

A Bruised Face and A Hurt Soul

I have not had the chance to blog in over a week. This past week I spend 86 hours at clinical...three 24hr shifts and office hours. This, I am promised by my best friend Elsa, is not what my life is going to become. I feel the effects of so much time at the hospital and so little time with myself.

I will start with a birth story and then wallow in my own sorrow:) At 1230 in the morning, after only managing an hour and a half of sleep a woman came in with contractions. This was her 7th baby and while she had only been having contractions for abut 2 hours, she had a history of quick labors and didnt want to have the baby at home. When I checked her, she was 6cm dilated with her bag of water still intact. With no concerning past OB history and a great fetal heart rate, we took her off the monitors and let her walk. Now, with this population of women, my experience that 6cm dilated means delivery within an hour. I thought to myself, "oh, I will get to go back to sleep." Not so on the mark with this one. During active labor my preceptors protocol is to listen intermittently to fetal heart tones every 15 min. The woman would walk, come back in 15 minutes, and then off to walk again. Beautiful...this will fly and she will deliver in no time. After about an hour of walking she asked to be checked and so I did. Still 6. Off to walk again. After about another hour she stated she thought her water broke, as she was leaking fluid. Great! Now things should really get moving. No such luck. I checked her about an hour later and she was still 6. While I was pretty sure that she had been leaking fluid, I also felt there was a forebag (where one layer of the sac breaks, but not the other, making it seem the bag is broken but it is actually still intact). My preceptor had went to sleep for a while, so I decided not to break this bag. The mom decided that she wanted to rest and so I put her on the monitor and let her sleep. My plan...check her at 5:15am and go from there. When the time rolled around, I got my preceptor and we checked her again. She was 7cm and did in fact have a forebag. Good but not great. We broke her water and waited. I stayed with the mom and helped her with her contractions, while my preceptor when to check on another mom who was getting an epidural. As we are waiting the mom states she is feeling more pressure and will I check her. When I do, she is about 9cm but the baby is still pretty high up. I take off my gloves and sit down next to her. All is calm for about 2 contractions, at which point she looks at me and says she is feeling a lot of pressure. Not really great with the whole "call-button" thing, I poke my head out the door room an call for my preceptor...and that is when I hear "Its coming!" I run back into the room, grab sterile gloves and quickly lift the sheet. Yes this baby is coming. Just then my preceptor comes in, and as she is gloving up, the mom pushes and the baby flies out, on a huge gush of water, in to my hands. I am covered in amniotic fluid from the knees down and the elbows down, with a cry infant in my hands. It was amazing. It was beautiful. It was messy. The most interesting part was once we got mom all cleaned up and I got the chance to really look at the baby, we all noticed its whole face was bruised. This baby flew out so quickly that it bruised its entire face! I have never heard of such a thing.

Outside the world of babies and pregnant women, things seem very off kilter. I feel very disconnected to a world that I found myself thriving in. My practice last week was painful. It hurt. Not physical pain, but emotional pain. I miss my yoga community. I feel the disconnect of not practicing everyday. I feel the loss of not seeing my yoga family. Yoga is a like my metronome. It sets my pace for me and keeps me on point. It is my constant. My foundation. My home. I feel on the outside.

After my 24hr on Sunday, I had to run errands for the wedding with my parents and Mark, leaving me with only 3hrs sleep in about 40hrs. Not good. I felt the effects as my alarm went off this morning at 6:15am to go to practice, and I just couldnt. I was too tired. I spend the day fighting off a migraine headache and a bit of an upset stomach to boot. Lovely.

I know I will find my way. This is just temporary. I will find my balance. I will find my strawberry.

Some Maybe Don'ts and Some Definite Dos

My week in a nutshell.

Maybe Dont...
1. Maybe dont give a woman who is in preterm labor with twins two "top-offs" of epidural medication, and then re-insert a new epidural catheter with even more medication. Outcomes = high spinal with bad side effects including trouble swallowing and difficulty breathing
2. Maybe listen to a woman when she looks you directly in the eye and says "something is wrong"
3. Maybe allowing a woman to VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) after a poor obstetrical history, including 2 c-sections, 2 vacuum-assisted deliveries, 1 forceps delivery, and one failed forceps delivery, is not the best idea. And lets not forget an estimated fetal weight of 9lbs.
4. Maybe dont diet and loose weight during pregnancy. IUGR (intrauterine growth restricted) babies are no joke.

Definitely Do...
1. Do trust women
2. Do take lower uterine segment pain (with an epidural) seriously
3. Do believe that a first time mom can show up at the hospital 10cm dilated and only push for 20 minutes
4. Do prepare yourself for 4 deliveries in one shift
5. Do know that a 13th time mom (yes, I said 13) can have a quick induction of labor process, even if the last one took 2 days
6. Do trust that I can help to deliver twins!
7. Do learn how to explain things in the most simple, clear, and concise fashion

Yes. My week in a nutshell. It has been a busy one with lots of crazy stories and lots of sleepless nights. I learned a lot this week and found out how much I love normal birth. I had a mom this week, who was new to midwifery care...not new to birth, as she had 6 other children at home...who told my preceptor and I how great midwifery care was. She felt so supported and when she thought she couldnt do it anymore having us there got her through. Awesome. Makes everything worth it.

On another note. My yoga practice is struggling. I have had two 24 hrs shifts in a row, with no time to practice. I miss my yoga community. Period. End of story. Still looking for the strawberry in all this.