Style: Yin
Teacher: Abe Cartland
Studio: Rama Lotus

Somehow sleeping through my alarm, I lazily awaken to the realization that I've slept through half a day of school. Before I'm even fully awake, I'm dashing around like a psychopath tripping over myself, trying to gather my things and get dressed and eat something and study simultaneously. And then suddenly I'm aware. What am I doing? Dropping all my things to the ground, I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Chill. It's not the end of the world. As I feel my heartbeat and temperature slowly returning to normal, I decide that I'm not in such a rush after all. The planet is still gently rotating through Space, the birds are chirping, the Sun shining and the snow melting. It's all good. Instead of burning rubber out into the jungle of concrete and machinery, I take the moment to go into a meditation. Closing my eyes and crossing my legs, I fill my lungs with oxygen, then slowly release it. I begin to quiet my mind, letting the thoughts slow their frantic pace. Focusing my attention on my breath, I spend the next fifteen minutes undoing all the stress that had bombarded and besieged my psyche moments ago. When I open my eyes, I'm grounded and clear-minded. Let's try this again.

Later in the day I'm at Rama Lotus, decompressing further in a Yin class. All of a sudden I'm reminded of words from Mark over the weekend. He recommended that we do a little less yoga in the week after the teacher training, instead taking the opportunity to rest. He also recommended doing more at home then in a studio. While there are strong benefits to be gained from the studio experience, your awareness is still focused on the external world around you. Practicing alone at home is powerfully conducive to personalized introspection. Overall however, he also said that the overriding authority should be your own body, stressing the importance of self-study and understanding. The fact is, I've started the ninety day challenge and there is no turning back whatsoever. It's definitely the Pitta aspects of my personality that are encouraging me to continue at all costs. I'm a stubborn child who wont take no for an answer. Finding somewhat of a compromise, I've decided to concentrate on relaxing, rejuvenating styles of yoga for this week.