Tony Advanced: Day 6

It is the last day of Advanced Practice with Tony. We will only do a morning session today and have the afternoon free.

We waste no time in getting to the exercises. Almost immediately Tony instructs us to stand. We do some qi gong movements to warm up before proceeding to the Standing Deep Breathing and then to the Complete Series. It seems faster and more effortless today. I think it is because I know this is the last time we will do it. I want to go slowly, to embrace each posture and each instruction.

In Short Man, Ida and I are upright on our mats, right next to each other. Tony say, "Are you having a competition to see who can stay up the longest?" We weren't before, but we are now! We stay in the posture for as long as we can, and Ida ends up winning (!).

After going through all the postures, we proceed to go through all the Mudras and Bandhas we learned this week. The breath control slows my mind down, and I become very relaxed.

Then we are done. With no ceremony, Tony thanks us all and gets up to leave. He puts on his baseball cap, picks up his backpack and, just like that, he is gone. The rest is up to us, either individually or collectively. Will we continue our practices with dedication? Will we teach or run a studio? Will we honor and pass on the tradition that we have learned?