Diary of a yoga retreat - day 3 - morning session

DAY THREE - MORNING CLASS

Practice this morning was beautiful. I placed my mat down next to my lotus, it was closed. The sun had only just risen and the air was full of that mist which is so familiar to Ubud. The little guys were out there, tending their rice, chatting away to each other, calling across the fields. Happy with their lot in life. Teaching me, reminding me how lucky I am to be me.

The family of ducks that live on the outer edge of the rice paddy waddled, quacking their way past our open air shala. Chickens running past, equally at home in this environment. People and animals are equal here, they all are worthy of the land they inhabit.

It reminded me that if God is in everything and we are God, that the chickens are the same as me. The chickens and the ducks create their own space and worthiness over here in Bali and they receive respect, seemingly normal and rightfully earned. Very interesting and something to take home and share, if only energetically with my fellow countrymen.

Practice begins and we complete standing postures together. It is lovely. I am feeling great now. It is day three and my body is abit sore but the practice flows. It is like when I get on my yoga mat who I am lifts, my issues lift and my body becomes light and weightless. I can move and my breath is golden. The light fills my body and it is neverending and a very beautiful sensation.

I am next to cranky old Byron guy, he has got issues but I love him. He is looking at them, he is facing them, every single day. He is so different from my mum. They are so close in age, yet he is looking and facing his issues. He will die a happy old man. I cannot say the same about my mother. What can we do?

Asana goes on. Im going well through second series (Ashtanga yoga is a set series of postures that have 6 series). I managed to reach my hands to the back of my heels in Kapotasana, first time. Felt good, felt normal. I feel great. Slowly with each jump back I do I take a glimpse at my lotus and slowly it begins to open in front of me.

I don't really like being down the edge of the room, near the doorway but I love seeing the lotus each morning. It reminds me that it is true. If God is real, if the universal powers, whatever you would like to call it, whatever you choose to believe in and feel comfortable with. I now feel comfortable calling that power God. It is truly evident when I look at that lotus.

I began my practice and it was closed, a beautiful pink luminescent bulb and as the day begins and the sun rises, the mist slowly burns from the rice paddies, slowly the lotus opens. Like my heart, like my soul, witnessing my practice with a silent beautiful power. By the time I finish it is fully open.

I sit and I breathe and I emminate sweetness and I am grateful and I cannot believe. In fact I can believe that my family allowed me this. It is the right time. It has been six years since I dared leave them. This is perfect for me.

Nerdy science guy from London fell this morning at the end of his handstand. He collapsed on his foot with a loud crack of the bone. Everyone jumped up, everyone concerned that science guy had broken himself. He was crumpled in a heap, his foot twisted in an unfamiliar and worrying position. Beautiful, gorgeous teacher, teacher of my dreams calmed everyone down. She is a mother and she behaved just like a mother would. She didn't make a big fuss and held his ankle and whispered to him to alleviate his panic and slowly it lessened. Once he laid there, with her hand on his heart, her light on his ankle he started to calm down and I realized he would be alright. He just crunched something and it made a loud crack. Science guy will be fine. He has flown halfway around the world to get here.

So many people come all this way to practice yoga in the heart of Ubud. It is astounding to me that this practice brings everyone together. This is a truly magnificent and appropriate place to find myself.

I hope when I am an old grandma that I will be practicing then. That I will read this and remember this day and how I felt so much myself, and smile"..

Susan Plesser
I am a Yoga instructor, but first and foremost i practice yoga. i became an instructor so I could share the joy that Yoga brings me, with others. I run classes, small retreats and have an online Yoga Products Shop.

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