Our First Day at the IYF

Photo: Priscilla & Natalie at the entrance to the Ashram looking out over the Ganges

What a day! Three yoga classes, lots of good food, and an awesome massage with hot shower. We don't realize how fortunate we are in the U.S. To have a nice long hot shower here is a blessing. Hot is definitely a relative word. The first class taugh by one of BKS Iyengars main teachers from his ashram in Pune was an amazing two hour class first thing this morning. Iyengar is an alignment based practice where they use props to help you be more comfortable in each position. After brunch we attended a one hour Jivamukti yoga class with Gabriella, from the Jivamukti yoga center in Germany. Since my x-roomates Michael and Steph are both Jivamukti teachers I was very interested in taking this class. Her voice was beautiful and the music rocked. Not hard core but perfect for this gentle flowing class under the gold and white draped tent. She had a few assistants doing awesome adjustments on the fifty plus students in the class. We flowed through some traditional Surya Namaskars and then another slow flow. She promised to kick it up in the next few classes she will be teaching, telling us this was just an introduction to this style since many people here are not very familiar with this style of yoga.

After a small snack we went on to take another one hour class in the Vinyasa Energy Flow Yogasana. We sat in the front row as to not miss anything and ended up the stars of the show. I felt very connected to this young articulate teacher. As if I had been in her class many times before. She kept looking at me as if to say keep going, show them how it's done. So I did. Natalie was rockin' the house too. She really loved the class. Afterwards we took this picture with the teacher. She asked me to demo her next classes for her so she could focus more on giving instructions. It's difficult to do both while holding a microphone. We practiced More Surya Namaskars, and then went into some Ashtanga postures holding for six breaths per posture. It felt really great. Afterwards we headed over Ram Jula bridge to the other side of the Mata Ganga (Ganges River) to find the spa that Priscilla and Natalie had found while exploring earlier in the day. They said they started with the Chevy version until they found the Roll Royce. We climbed up a cement hill, up two sets of stairs, until we found heaven. The spa is situated over a dingy garage and overlooks the beautiful river. Priscilla should be writing this because she had the best adventure of all. We got our massages side by side while Natalie once again got the deluxe treatment.The massage was followed by a "sauna", if you will, and a "hot" shower that ended up flooding the hallway. We were told that the bugs were still being worked out since they had only been open for one month. Not bad for 1000 rupees though! (that's about $20 American) We walked over to Masala Cafe for some awesome Indian food. Prisilla and Nat had dosas and I found my Paneer Masala Tikka from Pune last year. So now we are all exhausted and planning on attending a 6:30am class. We'll see!Keep checking back for more of this adventure in Shivaland.
Namaste everyone.
Love & Light~ Lynne