I had a really good massage weekend and a so-so yoga weekend. The tips were good this weekend and I met a few interesting people. I worked on the daughter of a former US president, an art gallery owner and an accounting headhunter. I had a good conversation with the headhunter. I told her that when I get back from Mysore that I would be looking for temp work in accounting. She said they always have a lot of temp work for her biggest client (Warner Bros. in Burbank). It just dawned to me that Burbank is not far from Silverlake where I plan to live when I get back. I hope to practice with Noah and Kimberly. This weekend I also got a prospective client. He wants me to give him a 2- hour massage from 8-10PM once a week. Now those are the clients I've been looking for. He said his going to call me later this week. The private clients are the best because they pay top dollar and it's really feels good to walk out with cash. I love that feeling.
Yesterday and today's yoga practice was not that great. I felt really sluggish and I lost my focus early on. I'll do better tomorrow. I confirmed with our yoga teacher that he is looking for a new place. Yoga Works really wants him out. He said he saw a potential place in Venice and is looking hard for another location. He wants to be prepared before they drop the bomb on him.
I read Russell's blog this morning and it made me sad. Russell is a New York lawyer, recovering alcoholic currently in Mysore. He said a lot of things in his latest blog but what I felt bad about was the fact that he started drinking again. He was doing really well in the first 3 months but his demons got the best of him. Although I have never met the man, I was quietly cheering for him. I e-mailed him one time to tell him that I enjoyed his blog and that he confirmed my desire to practice with Guruji. Although he is down right now, he said that he was leaving next week and returning to Mysore late this year or early next year. Although his latest entry was quite depressing I did get something really important from it. He talked about his high expectations and how he had hoped that his experience would be life changing. It was life changing in many ways but fell short of his expectations. Since going back to drinking, his practice has digressed. This is important to me because I do have expectations and I realize that I should lower them and take things as they are and as they come. He also quoted David Swenson as saying that you have to look at you practice in terms of decades and not years. A good yoga practice does not happen overnight and sometimes you have to move backward before you can move forward again. That's a very humbling thought.
When I started this blog I made a commitment on pursuing my yoga practice and I know that I would have to give up a lot for it. Today, I realize that the stakes are much higher than I thought and that I would have to give up more than I expected. I don't think 5 months in Mysore is going to scratch the surface. I know now that I will have to travel to Mysore every year or so to develop my practice. I shouldn't think that far but I need to realize that this is a life long pursuit and there's no looking back. Russell leaves Mysore next week and heads back to New York. Although he is a stranger to me, I thank him for sharing his experiences and insights while in Mysore. I will remember him for his blog entry on “Why we go to Mysore to practice ashtanga yoga?� I wanted to link it to my blog but I'm not computer savvy. I will probably bump into him when I'm there later this year.