Things are starting to gear up in terms of the program. I think the kinks are being worked out and things are starting to flow a bit more this week. There’s still a lot of questions and confusion at times, but it’s a lot less than it was last week.
Our days begin around 7 and end around 9-9:30, with plenty of breaks in between. We’re continuing to do a lot of breath work (pranayama) and are incorporating other aspects of yoga learning such as mandalas, mantras and meditation. We also have movies or presentations in the evenings which aren’t yoga specific and more body-mind type of ideas. If anyone’s interested, here’s what we watched this week:
– Gabor Mate – Just some interviews with him (you can probably find them on Youtube). He’s a doctor in Vancouver who has some interesting ides about the connection between the mind and health. It was pretty interesting
– “What the Bleep Do We Know?” – a look at quantum physics in relation to life. It was interesting, but I found it a bit slow and a bit hard to follow or understand at points
We are currently focused on the root chakra which has a lot to do with the physical body, so we had a discussion about diet, detoxes and cleanses. A few of us decided to try a saltwater flush. It involves drinking about 8-10 glasses of salt water and doing exercises in between to help flush out the colon. I’ve never done it before and am always up for trying something new to see if it works for me (which we are very much encouraged to do in this course). 3 of us tried it. The water seemed to move through our bodies at different rates. Paolo was able to flush stuff out right away while Kirsty and I just felt bloated from having a bunch of saltwater in our guts. I was the last one to work things through and I was seriously worried that I’d be stuck with this bloated saltwater belly forever!! It was definitely a new experience! Next on the list is the brown rice cleanse, but I don’t start that until next week, so I’ll tell you about it then.
We’ve been having classes either here in the yard at the place I’m staying or occasionally going up to David’s place up in the jungle. On the last day of the week we finally got to go to his beach property. It was about a 10-15 min. walk from Port Barton with a fun little boat ride along the way.
Class ended early as many people wanted to go into Puerto Princesa to do paperwork, go to the airport or just to do some retail therapy. Only 2 of us decided to stay behind in Port Barton for the weekend.
I spent the rest of my day swimming, sitting on the beach to check out the sunset (too many clouds) and having a conversation with Ace – a 10 year old boy who was playing with his friends in front of me on the beach, then came over to chat because his best mark is in English class (95%). The week ended off with dinner and chats by the beach with my classmate Joy and Laura (a girl from France doing volunteer work at at David’s place).
What’s up for the weekend? Sleeping in if the roosters will let me, maybe some Port Barton exploring and a whole lot of relaxing!!
Making my saltwater mix
First you drink a glass, then you do some exercises and repeat until you’re ready to “go”. Paolo was in a different place because he wanted to be close to his own bathroom!
Downing a glass of saltwater isn’t always so easy!
The boat on the way to David’s beach property.
Whitey’s giving it a try.
Treking through the jungle to get to the beach.
David’s Yoga Shala
The view of Port Barton from the Shala.
While waiting for the sunset, I saw this approaching on the horizon
Buckets of fish that people caught that day?
These are the kids that were playing in front of me.
Ace sat down for a chat and we had a great conversation!
