Some advice from the Mysore yogis

Today J and I left Mysore for Bangalore. Last night we had a very yummy dosa party at Anu's, her's are the best in town. She made my favorite deserts as well so I was totally spoilt once again! I went to kirtan with a few people to hear Ganesh play tabla one last time and L sing. Then to the Metropole for drinks and chats. We all said goodbye this morning at the coconut stand over chai. I had a few quiet little tears to myself there, it was hard to leave Anu, Ganesh, and my little gang of special people, you know who you are, love you all. We will all see each other again though. I'll see AJ next tuesday for a start.

In Bangalore J and I went for lunch at the palace, and lazed around there chatting about our trip and our favorite Mysore moments. Tomorrow we leave India. As always I expect going back to be more of a culture shock than going, and it's going to be cooooold! I will come back to Mysore I'm quite sure, as you know from my blog I've had a great time there.

For this last post I wanted to put together all of the advice and tips that I gathered from Mysore yogis in the hope that it might help some of you who intend to come here for a while and are new to the experience as I was.

• Don't worry about coming alone, you will make friends easily as long as you are friendly

• The food is very good, you won't go back emaciated, and you are unlikely to get dysentry or something like that as long as you stick to the good eating stops.

• Don't bring loads of stuff, you can find pretty much everything in Mysore.
  

• Tell someone if you have a problem, Ganesh can take you to a docs or sort out most things for you, and other students usually have a lot of good advice.

• If this is your first time abroad you may well feel a little rattled by the experience at first, it takes a few days sometimes to get over the culture shock. You might feel unsettled for a few days but this is quite normal. It's not a mystical "Mysore thing", it would happen anywhere.

• Don't recreate the busy schedule you left behind at home by filling your days with classes. Leave yourself some time to chill out and do nothing. It's ok to do nothing, you're not at work or having to deal with the responsabilities you have at home.

• There is no such thing as "being ready for Mysore". You go and bring your practice to the shala wherever and however it is whether you have been practising 20 years or 2 weeks. Beginners are warmly welcomed, what a great place to begin.

• Don't even start to think about where you will be stopped or if you will be stopped. You came to learn and they will take care of it, at the end of the day you pay the institute to teach you so you don't need to worry about it, let them do that for you.
  

• Don't even begin to try to understand why some people get stopped at different places. If you can't bind in Mari D and get stopped there and someone else can't either and can go on...that's just the way it is. They have their reasons.
  

• You don't need to be able to do everything perfectly.

• Don't come to Mysore as a "Yoga tourist", come with a deep respect of the shala and the teaching which you recieve there.
  

• It can be hard if you're not used to practising 6 days a week but it gets easier. The early start also becomes a habit, you might even start to enjoy it.

• Ladies cover your shoulders and legs or you'll get some unwanted attention.

• It's good to respect ladies holiday (Guruji advocates it and you're in his shala after all, so even if you don't usually respect it maybe give it a chance). It's also good to miss practice if you are injured or unwell.

• It's ok to stop your practice early if you need to for whatever reason, just let Sharath, Saraswathi ot Guruji know. It's not a crime!
  

• Take the time to chat to the locals, like your rickshaw driver for example, they are very friendly people. Guru who owns the coconut stand is one of my favorite people for example, and Lokesh my rickshaw man.
  

• It can be hard but the best thing is to come with no expectations.

• Smile. If you can't laugh at yourself you're taking your practice too seriously. It's meant to enrich your life.

• Don't obsess about the yoga.

There are many more but those are the main ones that were often repeated during my stay.

My personal advice would be to come with a love for the practice and enjoy it. With the right attitude you can have a very good time indeed. So... go and write your letter to Guruji.

The Mysore Anthem has been voted "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, because there's a lot of that in Mysore, and you need a lot of it too (suggested by Rew).

Last day in Mysore

Today was my last practice in the Shala. It was led, and that's a nice way to finish I think. Guruji was on form despite a few micro-sleeps, and for some reason it felt hotter than usual. I had a good practice, and once again managed the full headstand thing with the going half way and then coming back up. I also managed to bind in Mari D which made me smile :)

I had a major breakfast at Shakti because it was my last: banana and cinnamon pancakes and half a fruit salad. Then I packed with S who is awesome at somehow fitting all my stuff in my rucksack, it's a miracle believe me. After that it was off to the hospital for the 2nd rabies jab. It hurt. I also had to buy another one to bring back to the UK because apparently they don't have the same one there and their version is one shot, then 7 days later another and then 21 days after that another. That's a fat lot of good to me. Also they seem to think that I should go to the "travel clinic" which is the once a week thing where you have your shots for going away. Of course there is no travel clinic on the 5th which is when I have to have the shot. I'm going to have to go to the hospital and make a fuss. Thing is the rabies jab kit I am bringing with me needs to be kept cold, and I also need to get it on the plane. I'll find a way.

We went to the Lalith Mahal pool again and spent the afternoon chilling out and chatting, messing about in the pool, listening to music. J is very sad to leave (he's on the same flight as me), but I'm ok about it. I'd so so happily stay a few more months, but I see it like this: I have some things to finish up back at home. Then I'll come back for a while and it'll be excellent, Phd finished, job sorted...well as long as it all goes to plan that is.

Now Anu is throwing a Dosa party because J and myself are leaving, she makes the best Dosas I have ever tasted. Afterwards there is a Kirtan (or Curtain as it has been affectionately known as), and after that a trip to the Metropole hotel for a drink with everybody. Tomorrow we leave at 8am. I got some banana and carrot cake off the man outside the shala for breakfast.

Mysore has been good to me, very good. I have made some very special friends here, and you know what? Mysore will always be there for me.

Tune of the Day: "Make your own kind of music" - The Mama's and the papa's