The Independent Field Trip: A Yoga Retreat

It was ten weeks into our yoga class, and now Rose and I were finally going to a REAL yoga setting.  The place is called the Shoshoni Yoga Retreat in Rollinsville, CO. Some guest can stay for overnight retreats, but our class was just going for the day retreat trip. Rose and I planned to carpool together in her Subaru, which was much better for the mountains than my little Camry. Rose picked me up at 7am on a sunny Saturday morning with the donuts, and I brought the coffee.  We were like cops! After a drive that was about an hour long though the winding mountain roads, we finally made it up there before 9am to meet up with our instructor and classmates. There were also about roughly forty other people on the retreat.

Of course the scenery was beautiful, and the weather, for early April, wasn’t too bad. What was cool about Shoshoni though was that it was as if India has just transported into the Rockies. Just like how one might see in India. There were the temples, but there were no pink blossom trees, with the exception of a little blossom tree plant inside one of the temples. On the site, they had gardens, chicken coops, and even a ceramic studio, as well as the yoga studio. The morning started off with a tour of some of the temples and the garden, and then we went to the yoga studio.  In the studio, we had a two hour class on wood floors, unlike the carpet floor we have in our classroom, and we were taught by one of the instructors there. Instead, our instructor was in the class with us. But she couldn’t do many of the poses because she was still recovering from her car accident before the semester.

The retreat ended with having a completely vegetarian lunch.  The food was great, but what was the most interesting to me, were the handmade bowels we ate a part of the meal in. Getting a close look at them I could see they were made on a ceramic wheel, and glazed only on the inside. They clay used might have been organic material too. When I finally ate out of the bowel and stopped analyzing it, Rose and I were told that we could leave if we wanted to. And that was our day at Shoshoni.

Refeltion of Doshas

During the fifth week of the yoga class we learned about the yoga lifestyle, otherwise known as Ayurveda. Ayurveda is based on a yoga healing science, one branch being doshas. The three doshas are: Kapha, Pitta and Vata. Every person has a bit of each dosha in them, but they are dominant in only one. People who are Kapha tend to have a somewhat heavier figure, slow metabolism, and a good appetite. They like relaxation, and keeping life in at an easy-going pace.  Pitta people tend to be of average height and weight, and always on the go. Their lives are busy, and like to stay on top of everything. A Vata person will tend to have lower than average body weight. They are people who can have mood swings, they can be sensitive, and get nervous, but they also have a very creative side to them.

 After the class my friend Rose and I thought this was a pretty strange concept.  There could be other reasons why I’m creative, and that’s because I’m left handed, not necessarily because I’m part Vata.  Later I took a quiz online to see what my dosha was. I found out I’m what is called “tri-doshic”. I’m slightly more dominant in Pitta, but well balenced with Kapha and Vita. And I guess tri-doshics are rare. What was once a strange concept to me (and still somewhat is) now suddenly seems to be very interesting when I find out I am a unique dosha, funny how that works. My view of doshas I can now summarize like this: a person should try to aspire to have the heart of a child, the body (or health) of a young adult, and the mind of an old wise person. I think by the end of Bilbo’s journey he is perfectly balanced in being Kapha, Pitta, and Vata.  

Creative Non-Fiction Topic

Recently I’ve been reading a few chapters from the book Keep it Real, edited by Lee Gutkind.  This now leads me to my creative non-fiction topic, which oddly enough isn’t about The Hobbit. (I know crazy right!) A few ideas, or aspects, from Keep it Real gives a few ways to help me write my creative non-fiction piece.  So far my topic will be on the yoga class I’ve taken this semester at my local community college, and my experience in trying something so new for me.  In Gutkind’s book he mentions “frame”. How, or in what order, the story is told.  I think for this one I will start at the beginning of how I came to sign up for the class, or start with a description of a typical day in the class. The next aspect that has helped me is “Gunkholing: Finding a Story”. One thing that would prevent me from writing on this topic is the interest level. How many people want to hear about a college girl’s yoga class experience?   But Gutkind points out that one has to find what is interesting in the topic, and write about that. It will be a challenge, but I’m not going to let it stop me from writing about a topic that I feel I can (and will) make interesting.  Gutland also talks about “Influence”.  I’m not sure what or how I will influence my audience, but I feel like something will unfold as I go about the process of creating this story.

I feel that there are some compelling and/or quirky stories in my topic. One is what led me to sign up for the class. I never ever thought I would participate in an activity like yoga, but somehow my friend convinced me. Woody Harrelson’s nephew happens to be in the class. Harrelson, if you didn’t know already, is a lead actor in the recent HungerGames and many other movies.  And his story checks out. Woody Harrelson has two brothers and my classmate’s late name (according to the class list) is Harrelson.  It’s a Claim to fame! There is also a pregnant woman in the class. Prenatal is good for women, but there are a lot of poses and position that she cannot participate in or it will harm the baby.  One last thing that is interesting is that on the first day of class we all noticed that our instructor had an accent. I guessed that it was Swedish, but she is actually German and I think she brings a lot to the class that would be different from an American instructor.