No words

I truly can't put my experience into words. I have a feeling I may never be able to articulate the emotions and knowledge I have been experiencing here. My body wakes me up at 5:41 everyday, without fail. I roll over and see the sun beginning to rise. Although my alarm isn't set till 6:15, I hop out of bed, ready to embrace the light. I always announce my movements when it's not yet light in my bungalow-in hopes that any little critters that decided to join me will scamper off with the night's darkness. I have given up trying to capture the beauty of the sunrise through photographs.  You can see a couple of my many attempts below. The picture is stunning, but it comes no where near the true beauty I see. I also can't capture the daily differences in unique and varied light. I have accepted that this inability to share the beauty beyond my own eyes, beyond my own soul, is really symbolic of my entire experience here. I cannot share it with you; not really.  I can try to describe in detail our lessons and exercises, but I cannot convey the lift in my spirit, the fire of curiosity, wonder and openness that has been ignited within. You must feel it. Words are beautiful and they bring us together, but in this instance, they just don't work.

So, the first week was incredible. My teachers keep me hanging on their every word continuously. The training is more spiritually based than many of us anticipated.  We start the day with an hour sit in silent mediation and doing some breath work. My body has been more than prepared for the physical asana practice and hike up to the studio, but the sitting has been challenging. We spend about an hour in the actual physical asana practice. Lily shares herbal knowledge and information about energies-things that I would have been highly skeptical about a couple of months ago, but are starting to make a lot of sense; starting to feel logical.

We're always encouraged to question internally, honor our skepticism, but remain open. Our meditation and philosophy guru, Ramananda, is truly the most incredible human being I have ever encountered. After we have asana lab, where we break down specific poses into great detail, we have our session with Ramananda. We all look forward to it. He has the most soothing voice and his wisdom is beyond anything I've ever encountered. He knows so much about science and history and uses that context to help us understand the history and philosophy of yoga (and I'm not talking about the poses, which are only a small part of the Yogic philosophy).  I wish that every person in the world could have the opportunity to listen to him speak, to feel his presence. 

There are many big ideas that have me asking questions and feeling doubt, but I'm gaining trust in the Universe and in myself. Lily's most observable lesson for me so far has been to love. Love yourself. Love others. People constantly feel that they aren't enough; but they are. We are all enough, we just don't always see it within ourselves. We must only look within to find love and happiness. All our answers lie within (I'm still working on that concept... :)

So, moving forward I will probably post an update weekly on our day off (Saturday), but I'm finding email and communication attempts distracting and won't be doing anything more often than that. Ultimately this is a deeply personal experience that can only be shared in a very limited way. But don't worry, I will come home more than ready to teach any and all interested people wonderful asana classes!

I'll end by saying that the group of people I've met here are absolutely wonderful. I'm beyond grateful for this beautiful chapter in my life.

Also, there are animals all over the island! This kitten is with my friend Aly (on her birthday! ). The two dogs are a momma and pup. The puppy and I have a special connection and he walks with me almost every morning along the beach up to the studio.