Red White and Blue Yoga Camp Day 2
Krishna said,”Do your duty, Arjun, as your nature dictates. All work fetters, as all fire gives smoke. Only selfless duty saves. Fix your mind on me. Surrender all deeds to me. All problems will be solved by my grace. Pride will lead only to your moral ruin. If, filled with pride, you say, ‘I will not fight,’ it is all in vain. You are foolish. Fight you will, your nature will make you fight. Your karma will make you fight. You will fight in spite of yourself.” -Mahabharata, Book Six: Bhishma (P. Lal) Yesterday, was a slow moving sort of day that ended with an epic class with Rajashree Choudhury, yoga champion of India and teacher of Bikram Yoga. I woke up and right away knew I could not make my brother Aaron go to the 830 class with me at Bikram Yoga the Bronx. I called him waking him up and he right away told me that he slept so hard and could not take a class. I reassured him it was all good and that I would see him at the studio later that day for lecture and Raj’s class. I took class with Katrina and Cj. Katrina is a good friend and my bunk buddy. We came here together from Chicagoland. It’s so cool to say that we shared a few serendipitous events along with Barry who dreamt this camp leading us here. Cj is one of the veterans participating in the camp and he is also a vinyasa yoga teacher who is knowledgeable about PTSD and has experience teaching yoga to veterans with PTSD. Our class was chill with the locals here in the Bronx. A new Bikram teacher named Louis led class and I just loved him. He ended up participating for the rest of the day with us. Being in the Bronx is like being out of a movie and took my Chicago big city experience to a whole other level. So, like I said the day was slow moving, waiting for Rajashree to arrive and more people from Team Red White and Blue to arrive, Mike Erwin, the founder of Team Red White and Blue, Larry Olson, the marketing director and Will Reynolds the Chapter Director. It’s fair to say that there were a cupple of hiccups in the day. First one was as the veterans started arriving I got pulled over by Katrina asking me if I heard from my brother and right away rockets starting shooting off in my head that he was lost somewhere in NYC and would not make it to the camp. I got on the phone with him and he told me it was his wife’s birthday and he wanted to find something special for her that he had to go to Manhattan to get it. Right away, my yoga/loose screw brain is thinking, “dude you are here for yourself, for yoga, in the scheme of life and your whole life what is three days just to do think and feel yoga.” There is no way I said that to him. I just said, “it’s all good bro, let us know when you get to the hotel we will send someone to pick you up and I love you.” Second hiccup in the day was as Barry rolled in on the shuttle with the veterans he came in with some shocking news. A veteran on the way over on the shuttle said that class had made them feel clausterphopic and that they did not want to take Raj’s class because so many people were coming. Then more veterans followed up saying the same thing. Barry’s initial response was there would be an option. So right away when I saw him he said to me, “I am going to do something that maybe will not make people happy but I have been dancing around it this whole time.” So he gathered all the Bikram yoga teachers and we had a pow wow of pow wows. Here is Barry addressing the concerns but getting real. We had to empower them, offering them a possible option but not really knowing what the second option would be. Are they going to accept and be hindered by the limitations they are putting on themselves in the hot room or are they simply going to be hindered and walk away. This was their opportunity to push through their struggles in a safe place in the yoga room, something they may never experience going into their local yoga studios. As it turned out we all got back up in the yoga room and gathered around and Barry led the way with just that message, to take these limitations, go in the room and be safe, be empowered. Jane, owner of Bikram Yoga the Bronx got up and she told of her experience the day prior in the room. ” You are super human, you already accomplished class yesterday. This yoga is everything that you’re already about, “Be all you can be”. Then there was this great moment where Cj spoke. It was perfect. He gave the scientific method of yoga, how the parasympathetic nervous system is effected by the profound breathing in yoga and right away you achieve relaxation. And he explained what happens to someone with PTSD and how yoga could be beneficial to PTSD or any disorder. So, it’s fair to say that not one person dropped out of Raj’s class and it was just an emotional hiccup. “Rajashree class was different because it was not a self aware class. It was a room full of friends, of and comrades that looked out for each other, supporting each other,” in the words of Katrina. What I saw after class was a lot of love and joy and new friendships. I also saw a few good byes and people rushing around networking. Mindy from the Marine Corp talked to me again and has recruited me to assist her getting Bikram Yoga on Marine Corp bases. She told me that the Marine Core will be the easiest branch to bring Bikram Yoga in, that Crossfit is already on the bases. And Renee who flew in from Germany, I watched her speak with Raj and ask that we do this in Europe. Raj was great and she is ready to do this again. I came back to my room at the hotel and quickly got to my space. I called my dad and told him about the weekend and I cried. I told him that my brother is worse off physically than we thought. I have never seen anyone do a backward bend and come out with sharp shooting pain. I thought it was Rabbit posture that was hurting him but it was Camel. I told my dad that the doctors want to completely fuse his spine. I told my dad everything, that my brother insisted that if he were on a plane going down that he put the oxygen mask on his children first and I told him “no”, “you put the oxygen mask on yourself” and my brother still said no. So, I told my dad we can’t be happy campers anymore and just sit around and do nothing or we are going to lose my brother. Cold fact. I put some words up from the Mahabharata and about duty and sacrifice. I’m signing out yogi’s. Namaste, Nikki