Re-Shaktified and Back in the Game

I just spent the last 5 days in the beautiful Berkshires region of Massachusetts.  Ahhh... the mountain air and crisp chill of the mornings and evenings... it was heaven!

I was at Kripalu Center, studying with my teacher, Shiva Rea.  The training module was Chakra Vinyasa and it was eye-opening on many levels. 

I hadn't realized how much I was missing that sense of community that I rarely encounter in my day to day life.  Time at Kripalu always renews that sense of completeness within me. 

I started out the week in a state of exhaustion - physical, mental and spiritual.  I wasn't sure that I was actually going at all until a couple of weeks ago when I decided I needed to attend the training and not put it off for a year.  For a few weeks, I'd been dragging myself back and forth to work, training and teaching... experiencing little to no joy in my everyday existence.  Luckily, I decided to go with my gut instinct, which was to attend Kripalu.

Once again, I met 'strangers' on Monday, who, by Friday, were friends, kindred spirits, brothers and sisters on the path... I am profoundly grateful.

We started our group sharing with me opening up to the fact that I felt completely spent - with nothing left for myself or for others.  I was feeling completely flat. I didn't have my voice... but was content to just smile at others most of the time without wanting - or being able to offer - deeper engagement.

Days began at 6am with chant and meditation, followed by 3 hours of physical practice, lunch, then more tuition in the afternoons before and after dinner.  The days were long and my sleep was not as long or as restful as I would have preferred. 

We worked with marma points to attain deeper release in asana.  I can't wait to share it with my students and friends tonight! 

I learned to abandon my inhibitions and chant like no one is watching (not easy for a girl who is always off-key when she sings...) and experience the powerful vibrations that only mantra provides... this will be incorporated into my daily practice from now on.  This is exciting :)

As the week went on, I had the privilege of being in the presence of one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard:  Benjy Wertheimer.  He and his partner, Heather, together with John de Kadt and friends, were at Kripalu for a concert on Wednesday night.  Shiva talked Benjy into helping us (her students) access the shakti within.  It was magical.  When Benjy sang/chanted the Sri Raga, I was spellbound.  I cannot remember ever being so moved by live music.  My heart opened up... My spirit began to sing...

By Thursday morning when we had our Fire practice (that's a type of practice designed to ignite your inner fire... it doesn't involve Smokey the Bear...) I was a new woman:  we experienced sahaja yoga in the morning and danced with abandon a la spontaneous trance dance... I never wanted it to end.

Friday came and following a vigorous 3 hour practice, I was back in my car, headed for home in a driving rainstorm.  Sweet, renewing rain - how I love you!!  So many people seem to shrink from rainy days but for me, I come alive -- like a little daisy that's wilted until the rains come and once again I can spring forth, renewed and refreshed!

Now, I'm back home and after a day of regrouping... I've discovered that I'm now truly back in the game.  Although I didn't wake up in time for my 6:30am swim session, I had a fabulous 2 hour spinning session with the triathlon club and emerged sweating, tired and... rejuvenated!  I think I'm ready to begin anew...

Bring on winter training... !!

If A Tree Falls In The Forest...

... I shall bound over it, like a graceful gazelle... or mostly likely... trip and try to make a quick save ;)

I've begun a new love affair.  It consumes me.  I dream about it.  It exhilarates me like nothing ever has before.  It's like a drug.  It must be the real thing. I've discovered trail running.

I have a friend... let's call her Tina... well, we may as well, since that's her name... Tina the Trail Queen is what I call her, although affectionately I call her Pigpen.  She is an ultra runner.  She enjoys training runs of 30-40k+ (that's an easy day for her...) so that she can race 80k trail races.  She just completed the Haliburton Forest race and did very well... this was her second 80k race this summer.  She aspires to do a 100-mile race in 2011.  I cannot fathom how she does what she does and does it so well... but I'm beginning to understand how that love affair got started for her...

Tina took me out for a trail run (my very first) a couple of weeks ago.  It was a day when, after 5 days of extreme emotional stress (we had a very sudden and unexpected death in our family), I just needed to get out and spend some time with a friend.  Some might have taken me out for coffee... Tina introduced me to the trail.

This was a week after her 80k race and so she said she needed a 'recovery' run.  OK... I'm slow but figured that my pace might suit her needs... so we hit the trail at Hilton Falls in Milton, ON.  We talked and ran (slowly) for about 1:25 but deducting the bathroom stops, it actually was about 1:15 in total.  Until then, all of my 'long' runs had been based on 10 and 1's... this was something very new... (especially since I was only supposed to run 30 minutes that day... oops!)

I will never be the same.

Is it just me, or is there about 100% more available oxygen on a trail?  I felt like I could have just gone on and on... pure magic!

Imagine my delight to see that now JJ is adding 'trail run' to my training schedule!  I hit that same trail again this past weekend and did the loop in 1 hour (no bathroom stops this time).  It was the first time I had ever been scheduled a 'steady run' for an entire hour.  I actually did it!! By the end of the trail, I felt like I could fly... my stride opened up... I had a huge grin on my face for most of the time... like a happy labrador retriever loping along in the leaves...

I haven't yet attempted anything 'technical' (I'm pretty clumsy, anyway...) but I think that I'm going to be enjoying this love affair for a very long time to come...