Two Weeks of Tim

Group photo. Cheese!

Yesterday I completed two weeks of teacher training with Tim Miller and a gaggle of 31 other students. I had a few misgivings about the quality of my practice, and whether I was just going to be the weakest link in the room, but those turned out to be unfounded.

The first week was great, until all the muscles in my lower back and pelvis locked up from sitting on the floor for five hours a day. Four days of salt baths, ice packs, and lying rather than sitting down fixed it, and I was back to my practice.

Having the other trainees in the mysore room was fantastic - like having your own personal adjuster; sometimes like having your own personal Jesus. I was adjusted in nearly every other pose and had the best practice of my life. Giving and receiving adjustments, while getting and giving direct feedback (Marichyasana D: pull harder! Harder!) was invaluable; observing the different ways the practice challenges and engages individuals was fascinating.

Several of the students haven't spent a huge amount of time in the Ashtanga system, making it even more clear how powerful the sequential nature of Ashtanga is - when you run into a pose that you don't like, you practice it, no matter how much you hate it. Unlike other systems, in which people tend to avoid their weaknesses and engage their strengths. Setu Bandasana is a good example, many of the students said that at home, their teachers just don't include it in the Primary sequence (!?!).

The experience strongly reinforces my current understanding of the practice: that by confronting your limitations, personally, painfully, sometimes brutally, progress is made and you learn something about yourself that can be applied beyond the mat. The asana is an analogue to life: how often have you heard someone, or yourself, say "Oh, I could never do that"? How many times on the mat have you thought to yourself "If only my hips/hamstrings/back were as open as theirs"? How about off the mat? "If only I was as lucky/smart/dedicated as her"?

I met students who arrived in Encinitas convinced a pose was impossible for them; by the end of the training they were attaining the pose without help. They had been capable all along.

Own your present, your future, and your past.

Accomplishment is not dictated by genetics, but by effort and dedication.