So this weekend I went to a three-day yoga thing hosted by a teacher that I really like. Her yoga thing is pretty slow-going, with a lot of holding of poses, some less typical takes on the poses (like doing bridge, for example, is really different and I really like it), and the room is pretty warm, like 80 to 85 degrees. The practice she offers is meant to bring up emotions, and for the most part, I say, well done. Nothing gets me pissed for no reason like holding a yoga pose forever. But that's the magic in it - I love the mind bending in her classes. There's also a lot of energetic semi-psychological talk in her class, about things like resentment and forgiveness, and accepting our lives the way they are, and cultivating patience for ourselves and others, and all that jazz.
So normally super touchy-feely isn't my thing, but I am pretty receptive to it in the yoga context. And even though this teacher does a lot of it, she is so completely practical and regular and crap-cutting that her way of talking about feelings and energy just sound like she is articulating reality, just without leaving out the magic like we usually do. I don't know, whatever, but I like her thing that she does and thought I could get some good perspective or new tools from her, and I think I did. Although this is not without caveats.
We practiced using our empathic skills and trying to translate it into actual yoga poses, and we practiced reading people and touching them intuitively to "run energy" for them in a give/receive way that benefits both people. Sound too fluffy yet? Yeah, maybe, but it really wasn't. The teacher even said at one point that she was trying to take the "woo woo" out of energy healing and empathic intuition etc. So we did some energy drawings of each other, which just involves a basic gestural mapping of the body and the impressions we get from someone by looking and feeling (not by thinking though, no no no). I had so much fun doing this! I wish I were smart about the computer, I'd put up the drawings I did, I'm sort of pleased with them. I'll see if I can figure it out. Anyway I loved doing it, it really felt relaxing and fun and creative and great. My pal Electrical Storm was there for the training too and she is a great illustrator and her drawings were rad. It was neat to see them. And we did fun theater-exercise type stuff like take turns teaching while people distracted you with noise or questions or a game of tag, or singing the instructions, or dancing while you talked. I love love love doing this stuff, even if it's just because it's fun. It didn't have to be extra deep for me to love it. I have a hang up about not getting to go to camp enough as a kid and I'm probably sort of working it out a little, but that's for another time.
Things got a little hairy at the end when we did energy readings of each other, having to say out loud what we saw and felt from someone and then put them into a yoga posture to adjust their energy field (I know, corny, but really, my resistance to corniness is coming down pretty fast). I had to do the reading on a student who was pretty imbalanced. I was actually nervous when I saw her at the training because I was sort of aware of her from the scene and her vibe is pretty stressful to be around, and I was concerned that negotiating her vibe was going to take up a fair amount of the weekend, and be distracting or something. It wasn't bad at all - and she read my energy at one point and was DEAD ON with all her "feelings" about my body and what I was working on. It was pretty rad. But anyway yes she's pretty hyper-juiced up and a little imbalanced, and estranged from her family and children, and a total devotee of this particularly strict type of yoga and was pretty vocal about it, and I just found her to be a little nutty and stressful, which I acknowledge as very much blended in with my own judgments about things, but that's also another story. So when I did her reading I was truthful up to a point, stating the panic and chaos I felt, and then held back a little because she was starting to cry and key-rice-st I'm not a therapist and I didn't want to provoke some kind of emotional event so I eased off, and our teacher called me out on it, which was pretty wild since I thought I had covered it up pretty well. Guess not! Anyway it was a little intense and maybe more than I was ready for - but it was also very immediate and natural and I enjoyed it. SO ANYWAY long story short if I become a full-blown crystal-rubber I'll try to be a grounded one. And that's what happened this weekend.
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