RYT 500 Teaching Intensive: Destination Hawaii

Photo: ©2011 Barbara Denowh

Our favorite Montana yogini blogging from Cora Wen’s advanced yoga teacher training in a tropical paradise

BY MAGAZINE COLUMNIST BARBARA DENOWH

Barbara will be with us every day this week sharing her thoughts and experience of taking her teaching to the next level

Getting anywhere from Montana is hard. That’s the trade off. Big sky and space for trying travel.

I found that on this trip I was my most mellow self. Probably because I knew what was ahead of me and a few more hours wasn’t going to kill me.

Although, I have to confess that the flight from Seattle to Kona was the worst flight I have ever been on.

The plane was packed. Not one open seat. And I got stuck in the middle of the family from hell. Two beside me. Two behind me. They even brought a dozen orders of Wendys chilli on the plane. Gag.

Welcome to the family

The little boy is sitting next to me and very first thing he does is spill a cup of water on me. Water. No big deal. Then he falls asleep (which you’d think would be a good thing…) and his dad pulls out a coat and props the kid up on me. Seriously.

I’m thinking, okay, I’m on my way to 1) Hawaii 2) a yoga retreat 3) a reunion with my bestie from college 4) not sure I mentioned Hawaii. What do I have to complain about?

So, my very best self does and says nothing. I just read.

Then the youngster wakes up and eats some chili. And spills a juice on me. Then moves to the seat behind me and kicks my seat for the next three hours while ma and pa take a nap next to me. Then wakes up, crawls over my seat, kicks me in the head.

Did I mention that the smelly little bugger ate chilli?

Then my feet hit the heat

I felt like the whole experience was a test for me. The gauntlet to run before a couple of weeks of paradise and yoga. However, having compassion for others and showing patience and kindness doesn’t necessarily mean letting people walk all over you (literally!).

Once my feet hit the heat (very welcome after a long Montana winter) and magic of Hawaii I was okay. More than okay.

I spent the next morning drinking gnarly Kona coffee, shaking, and learning to paddle board.

Photo: ©2011 Barbara Denowh

Barbara Denowh is a yoga teacher in Helena, Montana. You can find her in cyberspace on Facebook or at her website denowhyoga.com. She also rambles about yoga, teaching, her wonderful husband, and her hound at babsbabble.com

© 2011, The Magazine of Yoga, LLC.