Bikram Yoga Decatur

With all our emphasis on non-thinking during class it's funny how often I have very interesting ideas come to me while practicing. I'll be staring at my reflection in the mirror, trying to be detached and simply observe and then I'll have a whole train of thoughts come full steam into my consciousness. One time it was about the very nature of self-observation (well, many times it's that but this post is addressing one such time).

I was thinking about not thinking and simply observing and wondering if they were the same thing or if there was a difference. The words, "I am observing myself," came and then, "I am observing myself observe myself."

In only a few seconds I was observing myself in the room, in the room in Decatur, in Decatur on the planet, on the planet flying through space, on the planet in the Milky Way until I started to feel like I was observing the entire universe from a place in the center of it, albeit a hot, sweaty place. Finally, it occurred to me, that I might simply be the means by which the universe was observing itself. That the evolution of all of humankind and all life on this good green earth is simply that -- the universe becoming self-aware through us.

And all in less than 60 seconds while I was standing on one leg, sweating like a waterfall.

Have you ever seen a sign? Have you looked in the sky just in time to see a hawk circling directly overhead? And then it happens again a couple days later? Has it ever happened that you learned a new word one day and then for the next few days you’re hearing or seeing that word frequently whereas before you didn’t know, or barely new, it existed? Or a book? You hear a review on the radio and then a few hours later someone at work is talking about it and at lunch the next day you see someone reading it.

A couple weeks ago I started seeing dimes on the ground. Finding a coin on the ground isn’t uncommon but I’m talking about seeing only dimes. Not pennies, nickels or quarters -- just dimes. After finding a dime a day for four days in a row I noticed the oddity of only seeing dimes and I had the thought, “is this a sign?” which is an odd thought for me to have because I don’t really believe in signs, in that sense. I’m not saying I haven’t seen them because I have -- for as long as I can remember -- but I’ve never felt the need to attribute them to a higher power or think of them as messages or omens. Nonetheless, I decided if it happened one more time I would take it as a sign. . .

I sometimes think our class pricing is overly complicated. The easiest way to simplify would be to eliminate the least popular class cards but when I do a review of sales there aren't any cards that don't sell as well as any of the others. Clearly people like having a wide range of class cards to choose from but we often have to help people figure out what their best purchase option is due to there being so many choices.

I wonder if it would be feasible to do something as simple as this:

$XX for an introductory trial period
$XX per single class
$XX per class if you buy 10 at a time
$XX per month for unlimited attendance
XX% discount for students, seniors, members

Please use the comment feature to tell us what you think.

The hardest thing about teaching Bikram Yoga is finding a balance between

discipline and accommodation,

being firm and being gentle,

telling the truth and being diplomatic.

We try.

Bikram Choudhury has always said the ideal temperature for a Bikram Yoga class is 105 degrees and his web site confirms that with this statement: "The recommended temperature is minimum 105F degrees and about 40% humidity." Bikram's wife and partner, Rajashree, once told a group of teacher trainees that a range of 100 to 105 is sufficient. So why do so many studios consistently crank the heat up to 110 or higher?

Sometimes I am hard put to describe exactly what it is that I value most about my yoga practice. The abundant psycho-physical benefits ought to be enough but there is clearly something more to it. I suppose it's what many refer to as the spiritual benefits but, as someone who doesn't subscribe to a literal spiritual belief system, that seems vague. Spirit, to me, speaks to the whole of human life including all the ways in which we relate to the world and each other. Spirituality suggests an infinite web of connections between beings, an energetic map of the whole of experience and awareness which extends beyond the self. On a more practical level my spiritual life is the reflection of my personal life as defined by my relationships with the other people in my family, community, society and the world at large (or vice versa). In that sense I get plenty of spiritual fulfillment in my life outside the yoga studio. Certainly it is expanded and enhanced by the community that exists in the studio. My life is greatly enriched by the relationships and connections that are constantly developing and evolving here. Still, there's something more immediately satisfying in my personal practice -- something tangible yet much greater than the obvious and numerous health benefits.

In Urban Cavemen (Living Life out of Balance) Mickey Z., writing for Dissident Voice, puts his finger on something. In it he writes,

We each possess a physiology that evolved to negotiate the Stone Age. Unfortunately, we live in the Space Age. There’s the rub. We are urban cavemen — overmatched in our daily battle to navigate an artificial reality because we have lost contact with our instincts [emphasis added].

Like most (if not all) of you, I spend a lot of my day in front of a computer (as now) or in my car, or on my phone and otherwise living in a virtual world of abstractions and ideas. I live more and more online and in my head. How can I not? It's how things work these days. I was born when things were different, when a child's life was still lived outdoors. The smells from my childhood are memories of moss and rocks, earth, rain and mud. I would walk for miles and hours and it was joyful travel. The toys and games I played with didn't have to be plugged in or re-charged. Everything has changed since then and mostly for the better. Computers and the internet have vastly increased our ability to communicate and learn. Technology is bringing people all over the globe into closer contact with each other. It's an exciting and fascinating time to be alive. But as we move more and more into this brave new virtual world, something is being left behind. Muscles unused atrophy and become unusable. Lack of exercise results in decreased bone density and muscle strength. "Use it or lose" isn't a cliche -- it's a recipe for good health. Astronauts can't do yoga in space -- they can exercise with machines but yoga requires gravity. Gravity (our local version) comes from the Earth.

When I practice yoga I feel like I'm re-establishing lost connections with primal elemental forces: air, gravity, energy, momentum. The feel of my heart pounding in my chest, the passionate drawing in of oxygen to the lungs, the rivers of sweat pouring out of me, the heavy pull of gravity, all these things make me feel more alive, more present in my body and in that time and space. In short, yoga brings me back to the Earth. As Michael Glabicki sings,

Hey yo' hey mama

Back to the Earth I feel it

Back to the Earth I'm fallin'