200 Baht and the Rerrax, Rerrax, Rerrax…

By John Dunbar 28 July 2008 10:41:00

200 Baht and the Rerrax, Rerrax, Rerrax...

Well I am out 200 baht but it's for a good cause...

One of my yoga students, Khun Duan, a waitress at the Thai restaurant here at Anantara Maldives, was teaching her final class today. She was displaying the usual final exam jitters before the class began so I approached her and whispered in her ear that I would give her 100 baht for each guest she could get to fall asleep in final relaxation. The purpose of the offer was to try and give her something else to focus on and also offer a little incentive to keep her voice gentle and supportive during final relaxation.

We spend a lot of time in class working on various aspects of the voice during relaxation. Cadence and pitch are very important in relaxing guests. Choosing gentle and relaxing words that my Thai students can easily pronounce is also a little challenging. We avoid words that contain a lot of l's and r's. Of course the most important word ‘relax' cannot avoid the final cut so inevitably we get a lot of rerraxes coming up during beginning and final relaxation. Regardless of the pronunciation though, it seems to have the desired effect on the guests and as Khun Duan had barely finished saying her final rerrax I could here the breathing of 2 of the guests change as they began to drift off to sleep. Gentle snores were not far behind. I had to bite my lip quite hard to stop myself from laughing as I imagined the look on Duan's face when she realized she had actually put guests to sleep in her first solo teaching experience. Not to mention she was soon going to have 200 baht riding around in her yoga pants.

I have always thought, both as a yoga teacher or guest, that the ultimate compliment to the person leading your yoga class is to fall asleep. Even though some of my gurus have explained that true relaxation comes somewhere between sleep and consciousness, it still feels wonderful to wake up to the gentle sound of the teachers voice. However I have to admit that on the odd occasion my eyes have opened to an empty room and then the confusion sets in, followed by the slow realization that everyone has long left the class and you are wondering if this is all part of a frat joke or a little too much Margarita Madness the night before. This is inevitably followed by wondering if you, by chance, emitted any loud snores or unconsciously decided to share your deepest secrets with your fellow yogis. It's all good though and real, from a teacher's point of view, it's like watching a group of kindergarten students during nap time, cuddled up on their mats on the floor dreaming of ice cream and butterflies.

Well in the long run Khun Duan aced her final class, not only teaching a beautiful class but sending off the guests in a very relaxed (rerraxed) state to watch yet another spectacular Maldivian sunset.

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