Five Keys to Improve Your Practice

By Stephen Rumpp

Determination

 - To start!  And if necessary, to start again!  To keep coming to class especially on those days you don't want to!  To make up your mind to stay your course!  To let nothing get in your way.  To make room for your daily yoga practice!  To stay close!

Focus

- To discover new edges in your practice!  To experience your improved ability to breathe while working hard!  To cultivate a tuned mind-body connection and improved alignment in your body!  To allow yourself to go places you did not think possible in your practice (and in your life)!

Patience

 - To stick to a plan!  To give your body time to transform!  To have bad days!  To have breakthrough days!  To work through injury and experience the healing!  To have your friends and family join you when they are ready!  To build a stronger foundation each time you practice!  To keep going no matter what!

Self Control

 - To manage your expectations and your thoughts!  To love yourself!  To surrender to life's power! To manage your response to things out of your control!  To avoid drama!  To make appropriate life choices!  To pause, breathe and then respond to upsets!  To surround yourself with people who lift you up!

Concentration

- To try the right way!  To start again when things don't go your way!  To breathe evenly!  To stay in the moment while practicing!  To connect with your compassion!  To make adjustments!  To know good pain from bad pain!  To Self Realize!

Never, Ever, Ever Give Up!!!!

The Power of a Pose

Not feeling especially happy today?

There’s a well-known, quick fix solution social psychologists might tell you about … it involves putting a pencil between your back molars and clenching down for about two minutes.  You’ll feel a little happier when it’s over (and not just because you get to relieve your face from the discomfort).  Try it with an open mind – it’s a little weird, but it works.

Here’s the “science” behind the trick. The muscles activating in this “pose” are the same ones that bring a smile to your face.  This biting-down activity is doing more for you than simply “turning a frown upside down” … in theory, it’s securely activating the same tissues and nerves around your mouth to simulate a sense of well-being in your psyche, mimicking a smile without the psychological effort of “faking it.” In other words, you’re letting your neurological system take care of your mental well-being, from the outside in.

The same logic applies to our yoga practice, perhaps in an even broader context.

Think about your body language during the times you feel your happiest, most confident self.  As you walk into a room, perhaps your chest is protruding.  You walk a little taller. When you’re full of good energy … your arms are extended and ready to hug, help, high-five … whatever.  You’re literally a “bigger” version of yourself.  It’s not rocket science – it’s just easy to tell that you’re feeling good by looking at your posture.

On the contrary, during the not-so-great days, you might catch yourself slouching or folding your arms, holding yourself tight for comfort or protection.  You’re a smaller version of you, maybe using those hands to chew your nails as a coping mechanism for your anxiety.

Much like the good old pencil trick, this is how the yoga helps us psychologically from the outside-in.  You’re opening your body.  Expanding your chest, lengthening, stretching … Releasing whatever nervous energy you’re holding up that’s keeping you tight, small, or timid.  By standing tall during tree pose, you’re giving your body permission to feel strong and balanced – even if your mind isn’t 100% there. By proudly releasing your chest in camel, you’re beaming with confidence – even if you’ve had the kind of week that would rather make you feel like crawling into a cave. By enlarging your body, you’re enlarging your mind.

Bottom line … There are those sometimes elusive feelings in life we all strive for:  happiness, confidence, inner peace.  You may not always be feeling these things on the inside … but if you start by displaying them on the outside, through your body, you’ll get there.  Don’t discount the power of a pose, no matter how small it may seem.  Keep it up!

Have a Little Faith

Happy New Year!

Last year seemed to go by so fast, and this year is off to a quick start!  January is almost over… and New Years resolutions… have they already gone out the window?

Every year people set resolutions to get in shape, quit smoking, and eat healthier.  The yoga studio, gyms, and health clubs get flooded with people in January, but as time goes on the people seem to fade out.

Why is it so hard for us to stick with our goals?

You can never fix the problem by dealing with the problem!  You must go to the cause.  We have to be willing to not just change our behavior, but our thinking.  In Bikram Yoga we practice Hatha yoga, the physical practice of the postures, as well as Raja yoga, mental concentration.

The mind is one of the most important and one of the most complicated subjects in our life.  When you have control of your mind, anything is possible.  With mental strength you can truly accomplish anything.

Bikram teaches us that there are 5 aspects of the mind we have to learn: faith, self-control, determination, concentration, and patience.

It always surprised me that faith is considered an aspect of the mind.  But truly it is.  In Bikram’s Orange book he says, “Faith is the essential ingredient in the practice of life, and supplies the foundation for controlling the mind.  With faith, all things are possible—you just have to believe.  In order to aspire to Self-Realization, you must first have faith in your Self.  How can you ever realize anything in which you have no faith?”

We have to actually believe that we can do it!  I am constantly taken back by the number of people I have talked to that have never tried Bikram Yoga that don’t believe they can do it.  I hear things like,   “I just can’t take the heat.  I’m just not flexible.  I can’t do that.”  Really?  How do you know?  You haven’t even tried it yet!

Yoga helps you develop faith in you.  As teachers, we already believe in you, and part of our job is to transfer that faith to you, so you believe in yourself as much as we do.  Bikram says, “The purpose of my life is to make people realize the goodness buried in themselves—that they deserve to be happy, and they can be.”

If you want to accomplish your New Years resolutions this year, come to Bikram Yoga.  We use the body to start to train the mind.  We start to train the mind by developing faith – a belief that you actually can accomplish whatever you desire.

Next time we will take on the 2^nd aspect of the mind, self-control.  In the mean time, I’ll leave you with my new favorite quote:  “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  -- Howard Thurman

Come Alive in 2013!  Practice Bikram Yoga!