Carla - Sunday, April 20, 2008 9:09 A.M. Bikram leaving, Craig in charge

Here is a picture of Bikram during one of his many lectures giving demonstration of his abdominal strength and ability. He gave many lectures during his time here these last two weeks about fitness, nutrition (no food is the best food), and about yoga philosophy and life and he shared a lot about his life. I know I am in the minority when I say I will miss him, he left on Friday, and will not return until we get to about week 5. He is extremely tough on us in class, and he was sometimes brutal in his statements during posture clinic, but for the most part, he has a presence that I can not quite explain, but fills the room and resonates throughout the hotel while he was here. Not just his hyperactivity and his propensity for not sleeping, ever, but his "presence". We have an anatomy test on Monday and I am trying my best not to get too freaked out about it, it is pretty tough to remember the terms and other parts in addition to studying the dialogue and practicing the dialogue, but it is all part of the program. Yesterday we had a class taught by Craig Villani, Bikrams director of education, and his classes are also extremely tough, and go about 115 minutes or so usually, and I always seem to have lower back pain after his class so I need to be mindful and figure out what is out of alignment or if I am just not fully aware during the class. He is very demanding, and wants you to work really hard in the postures, and holds some of them longer than others, so it may be hard to pinpoint when or where it occurs, but hopefully within this 9 week period I will figure it out. So far we have had many great classes, with many great teachers including Emmy Cleaves, one of Bikrams principle teachers, who spent some time here with us at the training as well, but came after our Saturday class to say good bye. I can tell we are in for a very busy, busy week.

Bikram demonstrating abdominal control