Tuesday June 17th—The Longest Days of the Year

On Saturday June 21st at 3:51am PDT the Sun will arrive at its northern most point of the year, marking the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere—the longest day of the year. This is the time of the year when the Sun’s influence is felt most strongly on the north side of the equator, providing us with energy, enthusiasm, and gratitude for life’s many blessings. For the past 15 years I’ve taught a “teacher training” intensive the last two weeks of June. The schedule of the training is such that I’m teaching for an average of ten hours a day over those two weeks--for me these truly are the longest days of the year. Leading up to this years’ training I must admit that I was feeling a little burned out after a very busy month of May and then a trip to Boston the first weekend of June. I was a little worried with the teacher training looming ahead of me that my mojo was seriously depleted and my mula bandha was sagging like never before. Have the ravages of time and age finally caught up to me? Is my physical vehicle just a shadow of its former self? Am I kidding myself thinking that I can still keep up this grueling schedule? All of these concerns were plaguing me leading up to the beginning of the training this past Saturday. I said to my wife, “Well, this is either going to cure me or kill me.”
Four days into the training I can happily report that I am feeling more cured than killed. There is some kind of mysterious and miraculous transformation that comes over me during these two weeks that feels like a mega dose of Geritol or a blood transfusion. Perhaps it’s an infusion of energy from all the students who come for the course from many different places—this year from Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, and the U. S. The couple from Brazil was strangely absent for a few hours this afternoon during the Brazil vs. Mexico World Cup soccer match. It really makes me happy that the practice of ashtanga yoga has spread all over the world as it has. When I began teaching this course 15 years ago almost all the students were Americans. This year about a third of the students are from other countries and there are more people in the course this year that I had not met than ever before. At the end of day four I can happily say that I finally know every one’s name in the group. It’s always very interesting to get to know the students a bit over the duration of the course and watch the bonding that takes place among the students. All of my regular classes have been packed to the gills with all of the out-of-towners adding to the regulars, and the studio has been sauna like. One of the students described today’s class as Bikram Ashtanga. For myself, I’ve had great practices the last three days with all the heat and humidity. My old body is feeling ten years younger at the moment and I’m hoping that will continue for the duration of the training--maybe I can take another ten years off in the last ten days! As usual, I’m getting a lot of support in the training from several of the other teachers at the Ashtanga Yoga Center who are giving generously of their time and energy to all the students. The days are long, but very full and rewarding. I’m looking forward to ten more glorious days.