Flow and Change
Yesterday I took a “Flow Yoga” class at Asheville Yoga Center. I branch out about once a month if I’m not feeling up for a full-on Bikram class. My stomach was bothering me and I just didn’t feel prepared for 90 minutes of heat.
Shala’s class at AYC was still quite challenging, the heat was around 85 degrees - nothing like Bikram’s classes, but still warm. I sweated. I think that after doing Bikram for about 6 months now, my pores are predisposed to open up the minute I put my hands together in prayer. It makes saying grace at dinner awkward.
It’s nice to do something different for a change. A new teacher. Other students I don’t know. Setting up in the back of the room because I’m new.
Some people complain that Bikram’s series is so ridgid. “How can you do the same 26 postures over and over again?” The truth is, I don’t have even 1 of those 26 exactly right yet. Why move on? Going through the moves from class yesterday, I know my alignment was off or I just wasn’t getting things right from time to time. I wanted the teacher to say things like, “your forehead must be touching your knee - the posture doesn’t start until your forehead touches your knee”. That way, I’d know exactly what I was supposed to be doing.
It’s funny. Just yesterday I was reading someone’s complaint about Bikram yoga. Their beef was that the teachers don’t give individual instruction. While I don’t think that’s really true; suppose it is. Even without one-on-one help, in Bikram’s practice, I hear the same very specific sequence of instructions every time I go to class. If I just listen carefully every time, I’ll learn something new each time I do the posture.
Yesterday, I just felt like I was floundering. Do I look at my hand during side angle stretch - or the ceiling? And I’m pretty sure some of the postures we were doing were just made up and weren’t really yoga. But I dunno.
So, as refreshing as it is to go to other studios around town on occasion, it’s definitely nice to come home to my Bikram studio. And I know that progress comes with repetition of the dialog, regardless of whether or not the instructor addresses me.
