| As I walked out of the Bikram Yoga studio toward my | | | | natural to feel weakness or exhaustion, that feeling is |
| car after my first class, I found myself declaring, "If I | | | | actually RECOVERY, and in a few minutes, I claim to |
| can actually do this yoga, it will totally change my | | | | myself that I am refreshed and energetically ready for |
| whole life." I had only been able to attempt half the | | | | life. And, magically, I am. |
| postures, with the rest of the time lying down, just | | | | 3. Trust your body to know what it needs to do. |
| dealing with the heated, humid room. But it was a | | | | Patience. As obedient as the body is to the limitations |
| revelation as to the sorry state of my body's condition, | | | | of the mind, it has also retained the awareness of the |
| and the pathetic condition of my mind-body connection. | | | | sequence of how those limitations were imposed, and |
| I had already made the firm decision to do yoga class | | | | knows how to undo them. The deeper problem with |
| every day for two months, after reading Bikram | | | | this is that many times there seem to be opposing |
| Choudhury's introductory yoga book. He says, "Give us | | | | limitations and confused commands operating within |
| two months. We will change you." After living with | | | | the body. These were put there by the mind, resulting |
| years of back pain due to compressed lumbar discs | | | | in the wrong muscles being used to do certain motions. |
| and a sedentary lifestyle, I was ready for that | | | | The trick, of course, is to get the mind out of the way, |
| change--so ready, in fact, I was willing to subject my | | | | and it WILL resolve. |
| de-conditioned body to 90 minutes of vigorous | | | | 4. How you do yoga is how you do your life. The |
| cardiovascular activity in 105° heat and 60% humidity | | | | corollary to this is what happens during yoga practice |
| (making the "apparent temperature" somewhere | | | | is a microcosm of what happens to you in life. Paying |
| around 145°). But the prospective discipline of it | | | | attention to this is the road to revelation--as well as |
| appealed to me, and soon I was actually enjoying the | | | | some inner grins. |
| gentle torture of it, as I began to move muscles, bones | | | | 5. Flexibility and core strength are the keys to health. |
| and cartilage that hadn't been moved in years. | | | | Nutrition is important, drinking lots of water is important, |
| Beyond the rewards of seeing my body stretch and | | | | getting proper amounts of sleep is important--all things I |
| reach new ranges of motion in class, it was after and | | | | had been doing throughout my life. Unfortunately, I had |
| between classes where the payoffs truly lay. Bending | | | | overlooked the two most important things. Exercise is |
| over to pick up something no longer hurt, standing up | | | | inadequate (and I dare say useless) without flexibility |
| after sitting for a while no longer involved pain and | | | | and core strength training. Again, it has taken much |
| stiffness, and I began noticing how good I felt instead | | | | more than I thought to keep my body's bank account |
| of how bad. | | | | from going into the red, and the quickest way into the |
| Of course, getting to these improvements took a while; | | | | black is with flexibility and core strength training. (By |
| and although I had committed to two months of daily | | | | "core strength" I mean the deepest core muscles that |
| practice, it has now been nearly eight months, and I | | | | create movement in the body, such as abdominal and |
| can now say yoga is an indispensible part of my life. | | | | back muscles.) With a high degree of flexibility, all the |
| This path has blatantly announced to me how I had | | | | enzymes, minerals, blood flow, and myriad other |
| incrementally reduced my own range of motion with | | | | rejuvenating substances the body creates to heal and |
| each tiny discomfort, each injury, each bout of | | | | build itself can get to those areas that need it. Without |
| stiffness, in an attempt to protect myself from future | | | | flexibility, there is withering and dying. I also noticed that |
| pain. It is a common life strategy, but a very | | | | I didn't engage my abdominal muscles when I should, |
| wrongheaded one. The body needs to increase its | | | | such as when bending over, lifting, carrying, walking, |
| range of motion over time, and each discomfort or | | | | standing up. This set up bad habits of motion, and the |
| injury points the way. As the World's Stiffest Person | | | | obvious developing flacidity and inappropriate muscle |
| at 50, I was on the fast track to being a crippled old | | | | recruitment. |
| man by 60. | | | | 6. Breathe. Combine this command with how you do |
| I drew a valuable conclusion from this, that all the little | | | | yoga is how you do your life, and you'll quickly see |
| aches and pains and microconditions we had as | | | | where you cut off your life force in daily living. I would |
| twentysomethings, if not dealt with in a broad and | | | | stop breathing when I felt weak, for example. Ooops. |
| holistic way, are the exact pains and conditions that | | | | 7. Use your mind to guide and expand. This is a |
| amplify over time leading us to our ultimate demise. | | | | corollary to Number 3 above. I noticed that by setting |
| From this perspective, what is commonly referred to | | | | and visualizing goals on each posture, as well as for |
| as "aging," is actually more like an excuse for not | | | | the entire class, and by refusing to entertain any other |
| answering the body's calls for help early on. I'm just not | | | | thoughts--such as how hot it is in the room, what hurts, |
| buying the "I'm just getting too old for this" refrain I hear | | | | what I'm afraid of, etcetera, etcetera--lo and behold |
| from my friends. Time, friction, and gravity will take their | | | | progress gets made. The body wants to feel better. |
| respective tolls, but only with permission from you. If I | | | | Help it out by concentrating on improving each posture, |
| end up dying at 94, I would rather have gotten there | | | | and when not doing that, concentrating on breathing. I'm |
| vital, active and pain-free, instead of feeble, crippled, | | | | saving myself a lot of unnecessay torture by applying |
| and tormented. | | | | this point in my practice, and in my life. |
| The main thing I've learned from my beginning yoga | | | | EMOTIONAL/SPIRITUAL CHANGES |
| experience is that it takes MUCH MORE WORK than | | | | The most impressive effect underlying all the physical |
| I thought to reverse my past slothfulness, and much | | | | changes has been my greatly increased ability to |
| more diligence on the day-to-day to maintain what | | | | confront life in the proper perspective--what I'll call the |
| gains I have acheived. Bikram refers to the "body's | | | | "Small Potatoes Effect." This is where one does |
| bank account." You invest into the account with yoga, | | | | something so monumentally difficult that the rest of |
| and then spend the account when not doing yoga. Of | | | | life's daily conflicts, conundrums, irritations and niggly |
| course, I found I was sorely and deplorably in DEBT, | | | | stresses seem to all pale in importance. Or, more |
| and am only now seeing the light at the end of that | | | | accurately, they begin to assume the quality of merely |
| tunnel, striving for the day I can touch my forehead to | | | | the backdrop texture accompanying my personal |
| my toes, rest my leg on my shoulder, and nap on my | | | | goals and purposes. They become the tiny, swirling |
| back with my head on my feet. | | | | dust devils stirred up by my atmospheric movements |
| SEVEN MORE THINGS I'VE LEARNED IN BIKRAM | | | | of intention. These are no longer "stresses"--they are |
| YOGA | | | | revealing acknowledgements that life is changing |
| 1. If yoga turns it on, yoga will turn it off. I've had many | | | | according to my desires. |
| classes where a muscle or joint will "release" (I used to | | | | As the practice advances, I'm wondering if perhaps it |
| wrongly identify it as "strain"), causing pain and | | | | is not so much that it is "monumentally difficult" to do |
| stiffness or soreness after class. By the end of the | | | | this yoga, but that certain firmly embedded toxic |
| next class, invariably, that soreness and pain | | | | conditions residing for decades deep within organs, |
| disappears. | | | | muscle and bone are at last being purged--and that |
| 2. Your body is stronger than you think it is, and you | | | | translates as a monumental achievement on some |
| have more energy than you think you do. One day in | | | | subliminal cellular or auric level. |
| class I decided to completely ignore my thoughts as to | | | | Whatever it is, it has restored my sense of humor, |
| what I could or couldn't do in class, and was surprised | | | | allowed me to rediscover my enjoyment of living, and |
| to find a whole new range of motion, and a whole | | | | added an aura of leisure in everyday activities, even |
| new area of energy and strength. The body obeys | | | | as I find myself accomplishing more. |
| the limitations imposed upon it by the mind. Because | | | | And so I continue on with my daily practice of Bikram |
| Bikram Yoga is one of the most strenuous forms of | | | | Yoga with an inner smile, remembering that Bikram |
| hatha yoga, it is easy to claim to myself that I MUST | | | | says, "You gotta go through hell to get to heaven," and |
| be tired after all that exertion. Letting myself engage in | | | | remembering that the only reason the "hell" is there |
| this way, certainly obtained the result. The REALITY of | | | | was my own doing. But with yoga, my days of |
| yoga class is that it CREATES energy. Although it is | | | | redemption are at hand. |