Germany...

Starting my second month in Germany, but in a whole different city than I began it in. This one is very different than the last mostly because I'd spent 4 months earlier in the year teaching in the last one and familiarizing myself with how to get around. This one has been different to get around in, but on my fifth full day here I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

One thing that runs in my family is a good sense of direction and once I go someplace I almost never forget how to get back there, or to reverse it and get back wherever I came from.

The differences are very interesting to take note of, as I was talking about them this morning over breakfast they are still in my mind so I'll mention a few.

At the last place the students are very different. I won't say they're lazy, but they are used to being able to take it more easy and not pushed so much, so when I would push some didn't really like it, but other did and grew from it. This new place is used to having an authorised teacher there at all times, which gives a bigger sense of discipline because we go to Mysore and are trained in a certain way and deliver the teachings that same way, usually.

I've noticed a lot of interpretation in the teachings from the last two teachers who were here, I'm not trying to change any of the students a lot but I was held back for a long time and found a lot of benefit in it, so giving postures when someone can't do the one before is not how I like to do it, so a few I've stopped and explained why, offered that they can go on if they feel led to but that the benefits would be bigger if they stopped there for the time being and allowed their bodies to open up.

It feels good here, as it did in the last place, but just a different vibration.

Many, many friends are in Mysore right now practicing with Sharath and are posting lots of pics and videos and comments on Facebook and Instagram and as unaffected as I can be about that stuff I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me a little bit. Especially since I was living there all summer and none of them were there and I was craving their company.

I'm good, and I'm happy to be where I am and teaching but I miss it, I won't lie. I also have a craving to go back there when I'm finished here and ask for permission to teach in Mysore rather than traveling around and trying to find a place and having a hard time. In Mysore I'm happy, I have my temples I like to visit, my cafes where I know everyone, my rituals that I like to partake in. And of course all these things can happen anywhere, but Mysore is just where I prefer them to be. And then from there I can travel around India in my off time.

Anyhow, I won't dwell on that too much because I'm here now, I have to teach an evening class today, not my favorite and I'm hoping that I have the energy for it. I'm usually in bed by 7:30pm and to teach until then will be an odd thing, but it's only the one night and Sunday has an afternoon class as well, but not this late.

Have a great day, be wherever you are as fully as possible. Stop thinking so much about things that aren't here yet, or the past that is already over with and you cannot change, or even the things in the present that are the way they are and cannot be changed. It's all good, or it's not, but it's your choice how to feel about each thing in that moment. Thinking about it at other times brings it into your present and alters your present into a state of thinking about that stuff. I know we need to think, but I'm not a big fan overdoing it in a way that can affect us adversely.

Tschüss!