Bikram Is Hot

Bikram Yoga at Home.

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:36:17 +0000

Many of you have heard the good news, @christopharii has started practicing Bikram yoga. I am so very excited, it’s so cool to see him rockin’ out Dandayamana Dhanurasana / Standing Bow - his favorite!

Dandayamana-Dhanurasana; image from http://bikramyoga.com

It’s home practice for him until he knows the routine a little better. Then he’s committed to trying Bikram at the studio! Maybe Saturday. Until then, I’m hanging up sheets and setting up mirrors and space heaters so we can get closer to the appropriate heat. When I practice at home, I don’t get much of a cardio workout. I know it’s the lack of heat, but there’s only so much one can do to get a room hot in upstate ny! Even in the summer.

@christopharii asked tons of questions that I couldn’t answer. So he read thru the Bikram book (the purple one) and practiced various poses. He was shocked when I told him I could barely get my hand around my waist in Ardha-Matsyendrasana / Final Spinal.
So, he showed me how to set up correctly, so I can sit up straight and get my hand all the way around!

Ardha Matsyendrasana; image from http://bikramyoga.com

Love the fresh eye of newbies! “The heel sweetheart, do you know where is your heel?”
Turns out, my heel was behind my knee, not at the knee! My toes were just barely poking out above the knee. Which, of course, put me in a tight little squished up posture to begin.
I’m practicing at home for another couple of days then I will finally get back to the studio to practice. I have learned so much in the past two days, I’m really excited to try it out in the hot room!

Bikram Advanced Seminar

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:34:55 +0000

Our studio owner, David, is away this week at the Advanced Seminar in Palm Desert, CA.
He is the primary instructor at our studio teaching 7 days a week and while he’s at the seminar the other teachers are picking up his classes.
Do you have a primary instructor at your studio or do many instructors share the schedule more or less equally? Because David is the primary instructor, the studio feels different with him away. I totally appreciate the security he brings to every class. You know he is totally in it with you, every time.
I had class with a newer teacher early this week and was surprised that a regular didn’t jump up in the front row when there was an open spot directly in front of him. At our studio, we line up from left to right and fill in the front row before starting a second row.

mango and farmer's market flowers

Or at least I thought we did. So, now I’m wondering, do people line up in the two more seasoned instructor’s classes and not the newer instructors or was this behavior a result of the owner, the head honcho, being away? I bet it was a combination of the instructor being totally non-confrontational and David being away.
I have been totally distracted in class by my own mind letting me fuss over what the rest of the room is doing. Writing about it would somehow justify the behavior and I know it’s just wrong. Will try harder!
I am attempting mango again after swearing I didn’t like them… pretty good in smoothies. I cut in to my first mango yesterday and was surprised to find a giant seed. Who knew?

Giving up is NOT an option.

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:13:03 +0000

“Never. Never ever ever ever doubt yourself.”
I hear that or some version of it during class and I believe it, then, I come home and write a whole post about giving up. What’s up with that?
Yes, I speak of my last post, weeks ago, about quitting the 6am class for good. I wrote the post and then proceeded to brood over 6am class every day. I’m happy that people commented on that post. Y’all were so enthusiastic about early morning classes it kept me pining for success!
I combined Jiggaroo’s advice about drinking a canteen of water before bed and my studio friend’s secret about not drinking till she gets there to come up with what I thought would work for me.
So, this morning, after a night of waking up and looking at the clock, going to sleep, waking up, looking at the clock, …. I got up, drank the pint of water that was waiting for me and gathered myself for 6am class. Sipped water a few times on the drive, but no chugging!
Felt strong during the standing series, no signs of distress in the belly. Yippee! I usually don’t finish my water bottle in class, but today I did.

My Sigg water bottle

It was the perfect amount. And, to top it all off, I’m awake, hydrated, and ready to have a beautiful day. What a relief.
The point to all this is, I just couldn’t believe that I was giving up. And, this is what I love about Bikram. Sure, I had to throw a temper tantrum; but, in the end, I was determined to make it work for me, so I put in the effort and really considered what my body needed. Because really, who doesn’t love their day when started with a solid Bikram practice?

Hey, I want to say to those of you following my blog, thank-you for reading and thank-you for your patience as I learn to be a blogger!

Off The Hook.

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:06:34 +0000

My Joy mantra, combined with the chill pill “the size of China” Mei suggested, has really helped my practice. Yesterday, I had my usual 6am Bikram class where every stretch in the mid region created an immediate desire to curl up in fetal position. The difference? I didn’t get angry or panicky about the impending vomit. Instead, I sat down Japanese style, head up, back straight and chilled. This is a huge breakthrough for me because I’ve always taken the “kill yourself more harder” mantra to mean, if you aren’t dying, don’t leave the room AND you’re not practicing right. Which means, I’m a total freaking mess by the time I admit to myself, yes, you are killing yourself, sit the fuck down! It kinda reminds me of calling in sick to work; I think I have to sound really bad or they won’t believe me, so I put on my best “poor me” voice. In my Bikram practice, I know I’m putting in 100% every time, so I can save the antics. The other bonus to chilling out is that I’m not an energy sucker to the folks that are still going strong.
Although I totally kept my peace in class, (and skipped half the postures) I still threw up. Twice. So, finally, I have let myself off the hook with 6am class. The water I drink, starting at 4:50am, clearly doesn’t sit well in my stomach. So, rather than beat myself up about it, I’m letting it go. If I have to take a 6am class because no other time will work, I’m going to see how NOT drinking before class goes. A woman told me after class that she doesn’t start drinking water until she gets in the studio and she’s fine. Hmmm, for now, I’m going to bask in the joy of knowing that I don’t have to do another 6am class if I don’t want to. Yea!

A quick thank you to Mei for introducing Despederata, a new Bikram blogger from Singapore writing about her first 30 day challenge. So cool. And for this article which I forgot I wanted to RT! (that’s twitter speak for retweet which is just more twitter speak!)

About my crushing oranges grip. I like it and will continue the hard way. ; >

“Why they don’t listen?!”

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:59:56 +0000

So over @ilovesweat’s he’s been naming some bad habits in his Bikram practice. I left a comment about my bad habit, inadvertently revealing 2 other bad habits!

When I first started at the studio I remember the teachers being tough about using washcloths or handkerchiefs as props during poses. You could use one, but you had to have yourself and your prop set up with the rest of us. No extra fuss. So, I pointed out that during Dandayamana-JanuShirasana, slipping the ball of the foot into the palm hardly works with the cloth in the way, so my bad habit is to wrap the cloth around my foot and relace my fingers. Lots of fuss, but I do try to be discreet.
As you can imagine, I was called out for using that hanky AT All. @MeiNg challenged me to go without my prop and gave a suggestion for improving my sweaty grip.

Try interlacing up the webbing, and imagine you’ve got an orange in between your interlaced fingers and you’re gonna give it a CRUSH OF DEATH.

At my next class, I didn’t use my prop and tried crushing an orange instead. It hurt. Talking about it tonight with @jaynesave I told her I crushed the sides of my feet and she immediately knew what I had missed in the advice. Imagine you’ve got an orange in between your interlaced fingers...
Crush with the fingers not the palms! Ouch, my poor feet!

Tomorrow I will crush the orange between my fingers, interlaced to the webbing. I can hardly wait.

Joy.

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:46:16 +0000

Somewhere in the last couple of months the joy slipped away from my Bikram practice. Fall ‘09 Teacher Training is on the horizon and money must be raised/saved. Not a natural fundraiser, (my family bought the band chocolate and softball raffle tickets) I get a headache imagining ringing doorbells, explaining Bikram, explaining TT, explaining me!
Lost in my own fears and worst case scenarios, the phone rang and an old friend was there to say exactly what I needed to hear in the only way I could hear it. “Don’t sweat the money stuff.” Right. There’s clearly enough sweat in the practice. So, with chest up and heart out, I set my intention to enJoy my practice again!

Utkatasana / Awkward Pose

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:33:31 +0000

How many of you have been doing some form of Utkatasana since grade school? I remember an older cousin teaching us her volleyball workout when I was in 4th grade and it included Awkward, aka squats. So, here’s the thing about Utkatasana, if I’ve been doing it for such a long time why can’t I get my back against the wall? And, is back against the wall the goal in 1st part Utkatasana? I’m looking in the Bikram book and nobody has their back against the wall in the first part of Awkward. Not Bikram, not the gorgeous tatooed man, nobody. So, should I stop with the struggle and just sit down and know that I’m there? I’m reading the book now and clearly we are to continuously try to get our backs against the wall! ??
I did a little research and found a good article on the Yoga Journal website. The article clued me in on the right pronunciation, (I always thought the first t was silent) and brought my attention to the pelvis. It’s easy to focus on the thighs and miss the mid region. I learned that the pelvic region is the area from the belly button to the pelvic floor and isn’t the easiest to feel because of all the outer muscles surrounding the pelvic muscles. (I had to look in my anatomy book to see this pelvic floor and then locate it on me!)
I will try, as the article instructs, to feel my sit bones moving back while continuously dropping my tailbone down. Anyone else start to curl the tailbone away from the mirror once you start leaning back max-i-mum? Alright, they don’t call it Awkward for nothin’!
My mantra for today’s class, “enJOY”.

For the LOVE of Hairy Women.

admin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:38:17 +0000

Cheri Moraga wrote, (in 1979!) when we rub up against what’s most uncomfortable for us that an opportunity arises for personal investigation and growth. I don’t know about you, but I learned that way back in Sunday School and have been using it as a guide for my behavior and life explorations ever since. The flip side to being uncomfortable is terribly predictable and would have lead me to stay put in my little town of TX, perfectly content to sit around and complain about how fat I am, or how ugly she is, or wonder aloud, is that a boy or a girl, all to the applause and acceptance of my skinny, white, well shaven crew of ladies. What a drag. Instead, I wanted early to know why the skateboarders were considered trouble makers and why in general, boys were given way more leeway to break the standards of decency. (I found out later of course, that boys have a super rough time breaking the limits of their gender and am a great big fan of girly boys, boygirls, and other gender fucking types with or without balls.) I wanted to not think about my fat for just. one. minute. Please! I wanted to meet people that didn’t want to talk first and last about weight. I did not want every life decision to be underlined by how skinny I looked doing it. So, needless to say, I alienated many a TX boy and family member. Love is scary y’all.

Is it Love? Yes. Perhaps, if there wasn’t armed conflict happening on just about every continent on the planet, I would be less driven to write this post, but for real, we make our lives safer and more peaceful every time we just let people be. So, even though I have a little bit of fear writing this, Love urges me on.

Now, a word to the Bitches. As you can imagine, I have been called a Bitch since I was a little girl still happily attending Sunday School. I was a Bitch for bringing the “queer” to the party, I was a Bitch, for calling the first and second Gulf Wars, total and utter Bullshit, I was a Bitch when I pointed out that many of the “terrorists” from S.America were trained right here in the good ol’ USofA. I’ve been let out of cars 100s of miles from my destination because I told someone to stop calling black people the N word. Calling a curvy girl, fat, making fun of hairy women, or girlyboys, does not a Bitch make you. In fact, typical is all I can think.

Typical is dangerous. Typical, is what makes bigots and women-haters feel safe.

Soooo, I am here to be one voice that says, I love hairy women. I love women that are in any small way living their truth even if it flies in the face of accepted standards of femininity. I love women that want to be men and vice versa. I love women that one day are silky and shaven and the next time you see them are sporting pit hair to rival your dad’s!
I love a woman that can say with a straight face that I need to “settle my bikini line”, as long as she can handle me practically falling down on the floor laughing at the thought of being told to manage my bush! That’s funny shit. I will love my bush, I will sometimes wish I was hairless, so I can wear tiny little bathing suits without alarming anyone’s sensibilities, but mostly, I will love my bush.

One thing that a dear friend recently reminded me, is that we are all “that girl” to someone, so if we want to move in our world freely we might as well embrace all those girls.

If you are considering being a Bikram Yoga Instructor, I urge you to put yourself in the way of all things uncomfortable. Learn to love people for the risks they take just by living. Learn to love every fucked up thing about yourself. And, if you are like most people, you will find that it is way easier to love and give love to others than it is to love yourself. That’s ok. Try again. Try again. Try again.

**************************************************************

This post was written with love and respect for dialogue. It was not written to take humor from you or to require anyone to conform to some standard of decency that lacks humor. I was first inspired to write it after reading way too many, “that girl” posts in the blogosphere. Then, my favorite funny bikram yogini, got all snippy ’bout my bush! @lovemore was a great push, because, really, we can all stand to love just a tiny bit more. I was also inspired by a lovely woman at my studio whose hairy sister came to our class and struggled. Not as much with the heat but with the looking at herself in the mirror. If you have ever wanted to flee from the image of yourself, you can relate and you can change. Peace.

“Nothing on, but the tick tock of your corpse clock.”

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:01:26 +0000

Ahh, final Savasana. After 90 minutes of meditation in motion, we get to close our eyes and rest in stillness. They say if you’re going to practice just one asana in a day, make it Savasana. That’s how big and healing and necessary it is.
I don’t have a consistent mantra or meditation for my final Savasana and I rarely count my breath. Some days my mind comes on pretty quickly and thoughts become weighty and I have to try again. Try again. Try again. Try again. Meanwhile, my body is doing it’s part to soak up all I learned, maybe even rewire some old thought patterns. So, what drives people to scoop up their mats and run just as my eyes are closing?

Speaking of eyes closing, while driving home today I had to work very hard to keep myself awake. Once safely in the driveway, I went directly to my bed and collapsed. For about 10 minutes I just let myself go. I was thinking then that some mornings I can be the inspiration and other mornings I need the inspiration. In the end, I had an energetic, playful day, but I think tomorrow will be a 4:30p class!

In my practice, I’m trying to remember to keep my own pace with the floor exercises even when class slows down a little to accommodate new people, adjustments, and chatty teachers! This means, after coming out of the sit-up, inhaling to turn around and exhaling to set up for the next posture. I really like this technique because I can tell it helps me finish class much stronger. Also, I want to remember to hold my stomach tight and breathe into the lungs while in Tuladandasana / Balancing Stick.

Guest Star.

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:58:35 +0000

Today was such a beautiful class. Our guest teacher was so right on. Some Highlights.
In preparation for Pranayama she walked us through the alignment of our entire skeletal system beginning at the feet. In one minute she changed my practice. Today was the first Pranayama that I actively “rooted” my tail bone to the ground while “pressing” the inner part of my thighs together. I think that before I was more tightening the glutes. So, to combine the thigh press kept me from tensing the ass which undoubtedly helped lengthen my tailbone down. woot! (pressing is not tightening but I couldn’t explain how that is!) My thighs felt tired after pranayama for the first time ever, so you know that’s a good thing.
Somewhere in all this great preparation she reminded us that every class is different, so take a moment to set our intention and rid ourself of any expectations. Set an intention, not an expectation. I love this. My intention was to learn as much as possible from her.
Another great shocker, rounding out the setup for Pranayama, she says you should not feel tension anywhere in the shoulders or neck. I’m pretty much floored now because Pranayama and Ardha Chandrasana / Halfmoon are my two most dreaded asanas all because of the painful tension in both my neck and shoulders!!
And so we began. And it turns out that by “pressing” the thighs together and keeping the stomach sucked in, breathing into the lungs, heart, and feeling the stretch into the hips, that the arms acted only as wings that expanded the lungs even more. I wasn’t forcing them to go higher and I didn’t feel any tension in my shoulders or neck. I realize this must sound obvious to some people, but before today, all my energy or focus was on getting my elbows higher and my head back farther! Turns out, all the energy is below the throat, on the lungs, chest, hips, thighs. Yea!
And, every asana was like this.
During the floor series, after coming out of sit-ups she would tell us to inhale while turning around on our mats and exhale while setting up for the next asana. Talk about group energy, keep it going between asanas and the whole class is like a wave.
So you can see that I’m totally blissed out on this teacher and hoping that I can hold what I learned in the next class.