Here I was, back at Tranquil Point for a week long Bikram Yoga Teacher Retreat with Teri Almquist. Teri is a Bikram teacher and studio owner from Massachusetts. Her studio in the States focuses on students with chronic aliments and injuries. The Teacher Retreat also happened to coincidence with my one year anniversary of graduating from Bikram Yoga teacher training. If you would have told me a year ago I would become a certified Bikram teacher, change careers, and start calling a place in Tasmania home, I would have said you are crazy! After teaching for 3 weeks on the South Island of New Zealand, I was back in Tasmania at Tranquil Point. It was such a nice feeling to be coming back to a place I was familiar with. Back to students I was familiar with. It truly did feel like going home.
Before I even left New York, I knew Ben was doing the Teacher Retreat at Tranquil Point. I had read about other teacher retreats where teachers from all over the world ascend on the host\’s house. The house fills up, yoga clothes, yoga talk, yoga bodies everywhere. Initially I thought, NO WAY! It sounded very much like going back to the \”yoga bubble\”and even a year later, that was a bit too much for me. The more I heard about Teri, I thought, I have got to meet this woman and I cut my trip short and made plans to \”detour\” back to Tasmania from New Zealand.
It was indeed the yoga bubble all over again. 15 teachers all in one house. Yoga twice a day, posture discussions, long days. However, it was a bit differnt than training. Amazing food, massages, rest when I wanted, classes weren\’t mandatory. I learned more from Teri in one week about anatomy and postures than I did during the 9 week certification! Teri has the ability to look at someone\’s body and I swear she sees right through you and only sees bones and muscles. To say it was worth my little \”detour\” is an understatement. Besides the invaluable knowledge I gained, I AGAIN made great new friends that I am sure I will know forever!
While I was at the retreat I starting looking into where I would teach next. It\’s always a nail-biting time for me! I sat and thought about the \”stress\” of it one day and realized if my biggest problem in my life right now is deciding which country to teach something I love…life is pretty good! And so I decided I was New Zealand bound again! This time to the North Island teaching in the suburb of Manukau outside of Auckland.
First, I made a pit stop to teach in the northern part of Tasmania at Bikram Yoga Launceston. It was a much needed break coming from so much activity at Tranquil Point. Bikram Yoga Launceston opened in October. A freshly renovated space that used to be Roman Baths. I heard great things about the studio so I was excited to see it. The space is so calming, so inviting, much like the owner Jacki Walker. It has such great energy. Everything from the lighting, to the colors, to the heat in the yoga room….it is all just perfect! After traveling for many years and living in Dubai for 10 years, Jacki got certified and decided to come back home and open the studio. The residents here in Launceston are so lucky to have this space. Truly a world class studio right there in the third oldest city in all of Australia.
I landed in Auckland on Thanksgiving day. I literally walked into the studio, changed my clothes and taught 2 classes back to back. Nothing like being thrown into the fire! Teaching in Manukau has proved to be an eye-opening experience. The studio just opened in November and its a mix of bodies I have not taught before. It\’s most certainly not the Lululemon yoga clothes, wearing, A-type personalities I see in most cities. These students range in age, size, flexibility and injury. The slender man in his 60\’s that struggles with flexibility, the man in his 70\’s doing whatever he can with double shoulder surgery. The overweight woman struggling to reach her heels.
My favroite students have turned out to be the most unlikely people. A priest in his 40\’s that frequently reminds me he hasn\’t been phyically active in 2 decades and gets a little concerned about his heart. He\’s also the one to walk into the yoga room no matter how quiet and medidtative it may be, he\’ll give you big wave and a smile as if he just walked into Cheers, and everyone does actually know his name! My other favorite student is a woman in her late 60\’s trying to lose weight for her 50th wedding anniversary. With a metal plate in one knee her flexibility is limited but she comes to class religiously, smiling and NEVER gives up trying. In the short few weeks I have known her, I have seen her backbend progress into one of the best in the class and it never fails to make me smile. It has been such a humbling and pivotal moment for me as a teacher to actually witness the reasons people come into the hot room. It has nothing to do with vanity and perfection of postures. Bikram Yoga is a healing yoga literally made for every BODY.
My Christmas holiday quite possibly may have summed up the reason I even started traveling. The traveling aspect of this whole experience for me was never to see the museums, the churches, or to do ANY of the touristy things. My purpose was to meet and engage with people. To experience different cultures. I took a week off and spent the holidays at a friend\’s home in Taranaki, a popular surfing area on the west coast of New Zealand. There is no Bikram Yoga studio there so I went with a bit of trepidation! However, I knew a Hangi was being cooked for Christmas dinner and THAT I was not going to miss! Hangi is a traditional Maori way off cooking underground. I had heard of it since I stepped foot in New Zealand way back in October! (The Maori culture in New Zealand is the indigenous population of the area before they were colonized by the British.) The preparation of the Hangi was a project! Lucky for me, it\’s traditional done by men so all I had to do was watch. Basically, large river rocks are heated for a few hours than tossed into a hole. Crates of chicken, pork, beef, kumara, pumpkin, veggies, stuffing and steamed pudding (Yes, dessert is in there too) are stacked up. Pieces of wet burlap are placed on the sides and over the top and then it\’s buried! As I stood there and watched I was sure Anthony Bourdane and a camera crew from No Reservations was going to come around the corner! The process was amazing and 4 hours later, the most delicious Christmas meal was served. Coming from an Italian girl that says a lot! It was ALL PERFECTLY cooked! This was only Day One of me being there. The week went on with fresh kina (sea urchin), the most divine, green-lipped mussels, my first Pavlova (a traditional meringue-based dessert) and it ended with Banoffee Pie, basically a caramel and banana pie to die for! Of course, I can\’t fail to mention my hosts for the week, who are the absolute MOST lovely people I have met in my travels so far.
Overall, I still have feeling of being so incredibly lucky to be on this path and to have family and friends that are so supportive, including my sister who actually cried when we Facetimed while I was on the bus on my way to Launceston. The ever supporting sister I am, I couldn\’t hold in my laughter. Not the best etiquette on a crowded bus or as a \”supportive\” sister. I still harbor ill feelings from when she told me to reach for a tennis ball and than she pushed me off a cliff. What can I say!
Truly, it has been a great journey so far. It\’s the first time in my life and I haven\’t planned or expected anything. I let go of the outcome and a little fear and it\’s been a game changer in my life, for sure. I had no plan when I left New York other than teaching at Tranquil Point in Tasmania. For all I knew I wasn\’t going to get any teaching positions after that. I\’ve had completely no expectations, no plans and it always works out. Actually, it doesn\’t just work out, it gets better and better with every step! When you put a little blind faith into your dreams things just start falling into place. The only thing constant in life is change. When you embrace that and let everything else go that\’s where the magic happens.
