Releasing my inner hippie

Organic... free trade... sustainability... yoga... meditation... back to nature...

Those are all words I associate with what I consider the 'New Age Hippie' movement. Not that I agree/disagree with it as a whole. I completely agree with the concepts of free trade and economic/environmental sustainability, though I may not be so good at my follow-through. What I've been somewhat less hesitant to explore/experiment with are the last three.

You see, there are certain things in life that I find too 'froo froo' or 'new age-y' for me. Namely yoga (and any of it's near cousins), meditation, and being 'one with nature'. I gave up on traditional yoga long ago, after I attended a class where the instructor told the class to imagine ourselves as a tree (a tree?!? Really?!). After that, I gave up for the (justifiable) fear of inappropriate laughing. I also had serious doubts as to any health/workout benefits for an activity that didn't require sweating. You see, my first few years of group gym classes were entirely devoted to kickboxing. Yoga and kickboxing... not so similar.

Flash forward to now. After pleasantly experimenting with Bikram yoga in London (aka hot yoga- the holy grail of sweaty classes), I decided to give yoga another try. I have to admit, my first power yoga class kicked my butt. My arms were sore for 3 days. Good job teach! The only con? At the end of class, when we were relaxing/meditating while lying on the floor (me? half asleep, possibly drooling), the girl next to me evidently had some kind of a 'breakthrough' and started sobbing hysterically. Awkward. But still, that didn't take away from the physical-ness of the class. I was sold.

Then I was invited to an interpretive dance session, which was described to me as "self expression through dance- without music, using your emotions, and the vibes you receive from your partners". Now, if you ask me to dance and play something with a good beat, I will shake my booty with the best of them, but erm... dancing, without music?! Pass.

I guess I haven't really broadened my horizons that much after all, have I. *sigh*

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it's just a balancing act

I like to people watch. It's great if you're a student of human behavior, like I like to think I am. It's always surprising the amount of information you can get from simple observation.

Being the tourist that I am, it's not hard to pick out the little things that make Guatemala and the Guatemaltecos so unique. One thing that has always struck me is the hard manual work that is endured by their bodies, by in large. Women balance ridiculously heavy loads on the tops of their heads, which seem to become part of their bodies; men strap bags of beans, firewood, livestock (!!) or other heavy objects on to their backs, and these are held in place by a forehead strap, so their back/neck muscles do most of the work when they trudge up and down the infernally omnipresent hills. It's awe inspiring, humbling, and ridiculously simple. What it is not, is ergonomic, comfortable, or easy. (Have you ever tried walking with a book on your head? What about a bucket of water on a cobblestone road? Yes, I have seen that, and even more impressive feats!)

I go to school with mostly American/Canadian medical students learning medical Spanish, while volunteering at the area hospitals and clinics (which are woefully understaffed sometimes). They tell me their patients come in, hesitantly and humbly describing back discomfort/neck problems. Sometimes when asked how long the symptoms have persisted, the answer is "I don't know. As long as I can remember", or "maybe about 5-10 years". Makes me feel like a total whinging, lazy, coddled loser. Sometimes you don't realize how soft you are until you see how the rest of the world lives, and that can't be good.

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