i want to be him when i grow up

(and no, not just for the women, dumbass; i just "borrowed" the picture from his website.)



wow. it was expensive, but i can now say that it may well have been one of the best 150 bucks (180 francs) i've ever spent. and let me tell you, even if i hadn't heard of him before, this hamilton guy is awesome. seriously, i really think i do want to be him when or if i grow up.

as much as i had been kinda holding on to the idea of going to mysore for a while after i finish here in switzerland, several people had made comments to me which gave me a little bit of doubt as to whether it would be a good decision or if it was just yet another manifestation of my stubbornness, where i decide to do something, and then pig-headedly stick with it even though it's probably not what i really expected or wanted. (okay, that sounds harsher than i meant it to, especially since i'm basically talking about my phd, but suffice it to say that i often find myself asking why i'm doing something---only to realize that it's simply because i decided i wanted the end result a long time ago, even though the process of getting there is frequently just barely short of miserable.) anyway, several people had told me stories of how, for example, steve jobs went to india at one point, and hated it, because the guru he wanted to meet ended up being too strict or something. or even just last week when alex was telling us about his two months at mysore; how the conditions are pretty harse and regimented, and how sharath and guruji can even be downright arrogant at times. but after interacting with this michael hamilton guy, i'm somehow re-convinced that it really would be worth it.

in just a few simple adjustments and explanations, i honestly think i learned more from him this weekend (in terms of making progress in my practice) than i have in the past 3-4 years combined. of course, the answers to some of my questions were rather humbling as well... in retrospect, i should have realized this as obvious a long time ago, but i asked if there was anything we could or should do to suplement the primary series in order to help open the hips, since i honestly don't feel like my hips are any more open than they were, say, 5 years ago. he responded by asking me how many times per week i practice, to which i replied "one to four," even though it's been a lot closer to one than four for quite a while now. and his answer made perfect sense; in his opinion, 4-5 days per week is really the minimum one can do and see significant results. it's just like my old trombone teacher, mike oft, used to say over and over again---it may only be for a few minutes, but you have to practice every day. if you miss or skip a day, the muscular progress you've made (in that case, your lips) starts to fall backwards. so naturally, i should have been able to figure this out for myself, and i was slightly embarrassed. but i guess sometimes it really is the most obvious things that we need other people to point out to us; this is how we learn.

so, with renewed motivation, i'm going to give the whole "getting up ungodly early and doing it every day" thing a shot, and see how it goes. this morning was kinda rough, as first days inevitabely are, and was only exacerbated by the fact that i was pretty much completely destroyed after the two classes yesterday (easily the roughest day of any kind of training i've ever been through). and despite my plans to get up at 6:20 and go from 6:30-7:00, i did finally get to it from about 7:00-7:30. i only went as far as "ardha baddha padmottanasana" (the standing hip opener), but i figure we'll start slow so we don't burn out. trust me, it was enough of a workout (my open challenge is still out there for anyone who doesn't think yoga is exercise to try doing even just the fundamental asanas correctly without breaking a sweat).

he also just seemed very calm and balanced in his speech, actions, and mannerisms. not so much "happy" as just simply "satisfied." this is something i definitely aspire towards.