Thanks Manju!!!

Went to a 3 hour workshop session with Manju Jois, son of Pattabhi Jois. He led us through most of primary until Navasana, then jumped to Secondary and stopped at Nakrasana. I think there may have been some additional stuff after that but I was mostly too thirsty and my head was buzzing so I don't really remember it all that clearly. After that we did some nostril-plugging pranayama and then some hilariously inept Vedic chanting. Manju and his assistant Greg Tebb led the workshop together - Manju directing, Greg demonstrating.

Initially I had a lot of apprehension about going at all. Besides the cost (not cheap), I was concerned that the workshop would be over my head and that I would not benefit much. The classes that I go to are usually under 10 people, and to be in a room filled with what I thought was sure to be only the very best and most elite yogis that chicago had to offer was intimidating.

In the end, I decided that if I was getting lost or overwhelmed, I'd just kick back and chill until the closing sequence. Maybe everyone in the class would look at me quitting early and think "gosh that guy sucks real bad!" but I decided not to give a shit anyway.

I went into the workshop with the following goals in mind: to keep up as long as I could, to quit when I couldn't push anymore, and to not fart loudly at an inopportune time. No one likes a farter.

I'm glad that I decided to go as I realized most of my worries were unfounded. The average age was about 38, and most people started to look very lost and confused right around the Marichyasanas. Most of the people weren't extremely advanced, and I was probably in the bottom 10% of students. Not bad! I was sure I was just going to be the obvious beginner and the worst at everything always. Instead I was maybe the 3rd or 4th worst in a workshop of 30-40.

Also, I didn't notice anyone snickering at my poor performance since once the practice started I didn't have any time or mind left to look around and see what others were doing. A giant squid could have come walking through the room and got into a knife fight with greg and I would not have noticed.

I did notice a bunch of amazing things though.

The first amazing thing that happened was that I successfully bound all by myself on the left side in Marichyasana B. If I look at my old blogposts, it looks like I started Marichyasana B on March 23rd and have really been struggling with it. I have been binding in it with a ton of help from my teacher for a couple weeks, and I assumed I would not be able to bind at the workshop. I was half right. Right side - no bind. I felt as far from the posture as always. But on the left side, I just bent forward, reached my left arm around, and found the fingers on my right hand without any problems at all. amazing! maybe it was the heat or something, I don't know.

Also: I held Mayurasana for at least a whole second, maybe two. Mayurasana is one of those poses that makes me go O.O and I was surprised when I realized how easy it might be when (and if) I finally make it that far. I had never tried the pose before last saturday.

I'm really glad I went. I'm going to go to his Mysore class on Wednesday since it's a moonday (!?!?!) and my normal school will not have Mysore class.

PS: So in the past week or so I have been getting a ton of hits. Are you guys actually reading this? Let me know if you made it this far in the comments and I will try to have a funny yoga picture for you tomorrow, because i'm pretty sure thats the only reason people come here. I think people react to posts in two ways: "oh look, here's one of those yoga dudes! ha ha! He's so fat!" or "oh well, he just wrote some stupid shit again. maybe next time!"

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I put my foot behind my head for a brief moment!