I'm adding a bit of a ridiculous photo here to give you a glimpse of the slight delirium (and exhaustion-here my partner Benoit takes an after lunch snooze) where my friend Olivia and I have fun with the ceiling mirror in a dead quiet room.  I'm dedicating this entry to "Clarity and Release"--which is also what I'm doing today; my day off in our 6 day/week training program. 
Throughout the week, we've obviously been pushing our limits a little: using more strength, flexibility and balance we ever thought we had.  The determination to do this is incredibly rewarding, particularly when you receive the result: often a moment of clarity or release.  I've spent plenty of time reading and hearing personal recounts about yoga, the integration of mind/body/spirit, the power of the mind, overcoming fear limits, yadda yadda; but it is through practice in which this really sinks in.  And what's brilliant about that moment of release and clarity is that, once learned and mastered, can it be applied to any aspect of your life.  I know this is a bit of an eye-rolling "no kidding" moment but it's been a bit of a rebirth for me in actually feeling this again after many years of working in a system that tends to fuel stress, angst, competition, aggression, ambition, ego and societal merit rather than nurturing true intention and progression in understanding the body and mind and how they intertwine to not only move forward but to just sit there and 'be'.  I had three moments like this already in this first week (it doesn't take much to pull ourselves out of illusion does it?);  one morning during our meditation sessions where my thoughts eventually melted away (a huge task for my chatter brain) and time both stood still and flew by in a moment as what felt like 2 mins was actually over an hour.  Another time in Prasarita Paddotanasana (when you stand feet a meter apart and hands clasped, elbows straight behind your back and bend forward towards the ground as you push your clasped hands to the floor).  During my adjustment, Lance pushed me to the point where I thought he was going to rip my arms out of their sockets; my breathing accelerated, my heart feared, and my mind immediately said "nope, can't do this."  Once I surrendered to his adjustment (and gave him the adequate counter resistance so that I indeed would not be injured [note: 80% of injury in yoga is from stretching without turning on your muscles; a common misconception about yoga.  it's not stretching, it's counter-resistance and the interplay of antagonist/agonist muscle action to build flexible, tensile strength]), my hands went straight to the ground.  My focus took me through it and though I surrendered to his adjustment; I was still relying on his support to get me there.  It wasn't until 5 minutes later, I did it with a less experienced partner (doing it ourselves) that my hands went straight to the floor and the unfathomable was achieved.  It's such a mind game what we think we cannot do...  However, this taught me the importance of self-surrender.  Guides can take us there but we unnecesarily rely on their guidance and wisdom without grasping our own experiences; only then can clarity and release happen.  The third (and actually another fourth) time this happened was during a nice hip opener (Supta Baddha Konasana; think a bad Jean Claude Van Damme movie where he lies on blocks, knees bent in either direction, feet together, letting gravity and a little force with straps pull your knees to the floor for a deep hip opening); 15 mins of this and silent tears of not physical pain but something deeper release (the rest of the day I was totally relaxed).  Also during Hanumanasana (you know the giddy monkey god? this is the "splits" move) for 15 mins (and trust me, I don't do splits, so this is a struggle where you're on blocks holding yourself up), I completely lost it when we finished with "Om x3" at the end and started laughing uncontrollably for no apparent reason; just shits and giggles all day.  There was no corresponding thought or intellectual resistance to any of these: they were all about surrender, release and an onset of clarity like, "wow, its so simple once you have the right intention and the focus to get through it all."  Its amazing the obstacles we put in our minds that become our realities.
Highlights of the last three days:
* Really understanding the P.N.F Stretch and how it works mechanically (Proprioceptor Neuromuscular Facilitation: a combo of static passive stretching and isometric stretching, so you're resisting and releasing at the same time to build muscle strength on one side along with flexibility on the other, without the dangers of ripping and tearing muscles and ligaments (remember: ligaments stretch muscle, tendons tug on bone).
* Meeting with my friend Elsie Tsui for lunch and talking about her work in NLP and higher consciousness; releasing emotional pain bodies and working with her clients on a deeper level to understand attachments and fear in their psychological make-up; intellectually processing a method of flipping their perspectives on the world. 
* Hearing the amazing stories of Claire (our female instructor, former corporate lawyer turned anatomy specialist and yogi; mother of 2 and looking 25 at 43) and the delivery of her kids.  She was doing yoga (like inversions and backbends--note: not recommended for non professionals) the day before her delivery.  Beastly!

So now on Sunday, my day of rest and reaching a conclusive release and clarity for the past 6 days, I must say that it's been both illuminating and rewarding; everyone needs some kind of medium like yoga to really discover (not therorize) the self and the connectedness of life; something we all think we know about but pretend to meditate on but just get caught up with what we've made important in life.  Maybe one day, we'll even greet each other with questions that revolve not so much around "Where do you work?" or "What do you do for a living?" but rather "What's your meditation?".