Bikram Practice Log

"ok- I’m telling you, that bikram studio ought put your life on a billboard; you’re a..."

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:48:15 -0500

“ok- I’m telling you, that bikram studio ought put your life on a billboard; you’re a living advertisement!”

- Christopher Roberts

"B kinder than necessary because everyone u meet is fighting some kind of battle"

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:45:20 -0500

“B kinder than necessary because everyone u meet is fighting some kind of battle”

- Twitter / THE_REAL_SHAQ

Bacon

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:12:03 -0500

Today was my 5th day in a row of classes. I’ve been really busy with work and kids and holidays lately and it’s been hard to do more than 2 or 3 a week. But I’ve managed to practice now 5 days in a row. It has been going well. I’ve felt really strong for most of it.

But toaday was different. I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night, and I made the mistake of eating a bowl of cereal about an hour before class. And sometime after Trikanasana the strangest thing happened.

I started smelling raw bacon. You know how when a smell gets in your nose and even when the source is gone, you still kind of smell it. That’s what this was like, except that I haven’t had any bacon in a while, so it wasn’t residual from my morning feast or anything. It just was kind of always there. It came and went some, but it really never went away.

Needless to say, this was very distracting and made me kind of nauseous.

Today became an excercise in pacing myself. One of the things a few of the teachers have said is that I look like I’m giving it my all for every posture. But today there was no way that was going to happen. I had to really pace myself so the smell of BACON wouldn’t overpower me.

Strange, isn’t it? Maybe I was just hungry.

Seven Steps for Overcoming Ego’s Hold on You > Wayne W. Dyer

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:59:42 -0400

Seven Steps for Overcoming Ego’s Hold on You > Wayne W. Dyer:

I remember being a kid in the 70’s and my Dad, who is a psychologist, was reading Wayne Dyer. Ever since then, I’ve thought of his stuff as a little - well, I don’t know - my Dad was reading it, you know?

Now that I’m a 40 year old guy, I guess he resonates with me now. :)

"The way you do anything is the way you do everything."

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:06:20 -0400

“The way you do anything is the way you do everything.”

Persistence

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:32:45 -0400

Yesterday the stock market was out of control. It closed 128 points down from Thursday, but before the closing bell, it swung wildly - at one point dropping down to about 8000. Here’s what it looked like on the charts. Bear with me here. This will eventually get around to thoughts on yoga practice.

The last week has been terrible for just about anyone who has investments of any kind. Retirement accounts, 529 plans for college education, mutual funds, or just plain old individual stocks - it was all hurting.

Personally, I’ve lost way more than I care to think about from my retirement and kids’ college funds.

Yet, what’s a person to do? Take everything out of the markets and stuff it into a mattress? Maybe, but if you do, make sure it’s gold and not paper dollar bills (which haven’t been backed by gold for about 30 years now). Instead, however, I think the best course of action is to remain calm, stick to your economic principles and strategies, and keep at it. This is one of those moments where fear, uncertainty and doubt take hold. But don’t let it control you!

This is all prelude to what my week has been like with my practice. It has mirrored the stock market. I’ve had a terrible week. So bad that I’ve seriously thought about giving it all up and taking up cycling again.

Because I’ve been very busy I was only able to go a couple of times: Monday and Thursday. But both times I suffered tremendously. I couldn’t breathe. The heat was killing me. I wanted to leave. I sat out about 1/3 of each class. I was extremely unhappy.

Friday, I went to the 9AM class. I was dreading it, given how difficult things have been this week. From the moment I walked into the room I felt like it was too hot and/or humid. I was seriously sweating even before the first breathing exercise, and once we began I truly felt like crying. After the second set of Pranayama I just couldn’t take it - mentally. Why was this happening to me? I gathered all my stuff, walked out the door, and drove home.

All day I was miserable, and it just kept getting worse and worse. Take a look at that graph again. That big slide from 9:30AM to 4PM - that was me too. And to top it all off, it was my 10th anniversary (with my very lovely wife, Katie).

We planned a dinner at Table and I really didn’t want to ruin our plans for the evening because I was grumpy. So by 4PM (look at the graph!) I sucked it up and went back to the afternoon practice.

I walked into the room and you know what? The same thing happened again. Hot, hot, hot. Sweat, sweat, sweat. But this time I was persistent and I found strength in that. I rallied, and all the unhappiness of the afternoon began to wash away.

Every day is a chance to reach inside yourself and find strength and determination you didn’t know you had. Every day is a chance to work towards self-realization. This week I learned that the path is not a series of individual moments. The journey is something unto itself. And my practice is more than stretching in a hot room. It is about persistence - living the practice and not just doing it.

Acceptance

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:18:00 -0400

One of the things that bugs me is how busy I get sometimes and really just can’t make it to practice. It’s a huge committment to get there. When you consider travel, cool down, shower, etc. a 90 minute class quickly becomes a 150 minute committment. Given that I have to get my 2 boys off to school every morning at 7:20, and that Bikram Yoga is not the only activity in my life, I often find myself struggling to find a time to get to class. And I get grumpy when I can’t go and end up taking it out on people.

But that’s not being a good yogi is it?

Just as I have to accept that after 6 months it is still difficult for me to stand on one locked leg for 60 seconds, I also must accept that there are other aspects of my life that need to be attended to. I can’t always just drop everything and go - much as I would like to at times.

Yoga is helping me to learn how to deal with this. In class I often find that I’m having a hard time accepting the heat or the humidity, getting angry or frustrated during class because the instructor won’t open the door or turn on the fans. I wiggle and squirm in Savasana, trying desparately not to run out, screaming “screw it!” over my shoulder as I slip through the door and am gone. But it never happens. I accept it. I try desparately not to try, but to just be.

So, now, I need to take that practice into my daily life. I need to simply accept that today I must get the kids to school, deal with the furnace repair man and later the chimney sweep, the early dismissal the kids have from school, the midterm I still have to write for class tomorrow, and the house cleaning required for our guests arriving tonight. Adding 2.5 hours of travel, practice, shower, travel just isn’t going to work no matter how grumpy I get with Katie.

There is a prayer called the “Serenity Prayer”:

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

It fits just about perfectly here. I just might add something like, “Lord grant me the strength to stand on one locked out leg for 60 seconds, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, etc….”

In India, Lessons on Yoga and on Life - NYTimes.com

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:39:52 -0400

In India, Lessons on Yoga and on Life - NYTimes.com

Nobody Home

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:13:07 -0400

I went to class yesterday after taking about 4 days off. The 4 days were not intentional. I’ve just been so busy rustling up work that it’s been hard to make it to class.

Yesterday was good though. Taking the time off seems to not have had any real noticeable affect. My left knee and hip are still kind of messed up from who-knows-what (probably some old injuy from high school sports).

But there’s no gasoline around here, and there were only about 5 people in class. I woke up early, but then chose not to go this morning for just that reason. Another 10 mile round trip is a half gallon of precious fuel in my truck. It’s too far to go on bicycle at 6:30 AM, and the headlight on my motorcycle needs to be reparied, so I can’t leave the house when still almost dark outside. So, I stayed home. Does it count that last night I dreamt I was doing the postures. Damn was I good.

No Coffee!?

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:29:53 -0400

Today was the 4th or 5th time now that I’ve consciously avoided coffee during the day before practice, and I think I’m on to something. I really do think that I suffer more if I’ve had any coffee. More sweat, more dizziness, more nausea.

Maybe it’s a sign I should not be drinking it. Ohhh, but I love it so!

But it really is remarkable the difference when I’ve had some. And if I’m having one of those tough 90 minute rides, and the instructor keeps talking about detoxing and how I’m sweating all the poisins out of my system — I just keep thinking, “damn all that toxic caffeine”.

I’ve always liked tea. Maybe I can become a tea drinker instead. We’ll see. :)

Coffee and the Hip

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:36:03 -0400

This week I’ve done my Bikram practice on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Tuesday I did Shala’s “Dynamic Flow” class at AYC.

I definitely feel like I was working through something last month when I was so incredibly hot and felt like I was going to barf in every class. Things are better now. I think there are a lot of reasons for it, but one of the most effectice is simply not drinking coffee beforehand. I’m usually up before 7, so if I have a 9AM practice, it’s hard not to drink at least one cup. Everyone else is doing it!!!

But for the last couple of days we haven’t had any joe in the house. We ran out. And I’m a notorious flake and keep forgetting to go get more. (You’d think that, working from home, I’d want to get out more). With no coffee, I’ve felt stronger and less like I’m going to let loose with some of last night’s dinner.

So now that I feel better, I’m getting a little stronger and starting to push myself a bit more. I’m more flexible than I’ve ever been. I can touch my face to my legs below my knees, and go way back, all the way back, fall back in half moon.

But all of this flexibility seems to have stirred up some old hip injury. My left hip is tight, extending down into my IT band, making my knee sore during tree and toe stand. Still, toe stand eludes me on the left leg. I think it’s all related. It usually is.

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:26:54 -0400

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

- Wayne Dyer

Flow and Change

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:09:00 -0400

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.

Practice

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:22:00 -0400

Practice:

You practice yoga. You don’t DO yoga.

Two Days, Two Kinds of Heat

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:09:32 -0400

At the studio where I practice, I’ve been feeling like the humidity plays a huge role in how I feel as the class progresses. This week, it really hit home when I did my first silent practice. On Monday at noon, there were only 3 people in the class and one of them was an instructor. So, Adi who was leading asked if we’d mind a silent class so she could practice too. Wow. I’d never done that before and it was really amazing.

I had a lot of energy that followed me all through class and the rest of the day. I never once felt dizzy or over heated or tired, and I didn’t sweat all that much. But I don’t really think it was the silence that was responsible. Instead it was the humidity. A studio with only 4 people practicing is a lot less humid than the same space with 30 people.

Yesterday - the day after my excellent silent practice - it was killer. The class was still small, but 4x as big as Monday. There were about 15 people and the room was humid the moment I walked in. I could feel it. As I often do, I struggled a lot. I was hot and sweating by Half Moon, and it just went on from there. I completely soaked a YogiToes towel in the standing series. Before we did the first Savasana, I put another towel on top of the YogiToes and still it was soaked through after the floor series.

So, I have decided that I can’t really control the room. I can’t control the heat or the humidity or how many people are in the class, or even where I put my mat - since I’m often getting there at the last minute. All I can control is my bulldog determination and my willingness to just be.

Imaginary Double Double

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:26:39 -0400

Yesterday I took the morning class and felt like I could do a double right after it was over with. This is amazing because I’ve never felt that way before. For the last month or so I’ve been really struggling hard with the heat and humidity. But I had no problems in yesterday’s morning class.

So, this morning, I got up early for the 6:30 AM and the same thing happened. I wanted to do a double right after it was over with.

All through practice I felt great. I started out a little stiff, and I’m never as flexible in the early morning, so it took a while for me to loosen up. And to be honest, my standing series wasn’t great. My locked out leg was strong, solid, unbroken, one piece, like a lamp post. I just kept losing my balance. Maybe I was still waking up.

But I seem to have come to a new level in my practice. While still feeling a bit off balance, I managed to stay in a pretty decent dandayamana dhanurasana (standing bow) standing on my right leg in the second set for the full 30 seconds - left foot over my head in the mirror, right hand pointed at my forehead. I have yet to hold either side for 60 in the first set, but even holding the second set without falling out is a big step forward for me.

I got stronger and stronger as the class progressed. By the end of the floor series I was litterally bounding up after each savasana into the next pose. By ustrasana (camel) I was feeling incredibly strong and flexible. This is particularly remarkable because that early in the morning I am usually stiff regardless of how the heat is affecting me. But this morning in camel, I let my hands move from my heels, down the soles of my feet, then my palms rested flat on the floor, fingers pointed backwards. I lifted my chest, arched my entire spine, and saw the back of my mat. I saw the back of my mat. Wow.

Sasangasana (rabbit) was good, as it usually is. Then stretching, twisting, breathing for the last 3 postures flew by. I felt like I could do a double immediately after - of course I didn’t. I’ve never done that before, and doubt I’d just do it on a whim. And in any case, I have to work! So I just felt great, came home had a bagel and started my day.

"6:30 AM class was great. I got stronger and stronger as the class progressed and I felt like I..."

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:45:51 -0400

“6:30 AM class was great. I got stronger and stronger as the class progressed and I felt like I could do a double immediately after - of course I didn’t. I just felt great, came home had a bagel and started my day.”