The Intangibles

By Niki Hayes

Why do you practice yoga?

Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to be able to touch your toes again? Did your doctor send you here to help with your high blood pressure? Did your chiropractor send you here to help with your bad back? Do you want to lower your stress level?

If you answered yes to any of these - good news, you are on the right track! Yoga will help with all of this. Just know that while you may be doing yoga to heal your knee injury or shrink your waistline, there are also benefits occurring simultaneously that you may not be aware of. Bikram describes these benefits as “the intangibles”.

“Keep in mind that yoga is not reducible to a quantified number of medical benefits. Even as yoga makes measurable changes in your muscles, organs, bones and spine, it's also working on what we call the “subtle anatomy”, renewing and reviving you at the cellular level, invisibly taking care of every atom and molecule. There’s an emotional and psychological aspect to the healing process as well – the mind/body connection. This is soul-stretching, mind-restoring and Spirit-building. The unquantifiable improvements in your quality of life and your attitude toward life make themselves felt in every cell as well. When you’re well, they’re well.”

Be well my friends.

Adversity is a Gift

By Steve Rumpp

Welcome the adversity in your life. Don't go looking for it, or enjoy it- but welcome life’s physical, mental and emotional adversities as they happen, with total mindfulness.  See more clearly than you normally see, breathe more calmly, think more soundly, and be with the adversity in your life.

Your true strength lies within it.

Bikram likes to say, “The darkest place is under the lamp.”  Implied then, is that the brightest place (with the most to learn) is in total darkness.  “The more you suffer, the more you benefit.  If $1 buys 2 apples, then when you suffer more, the same $1 buys 4 apples.”  While we think we’d prefer to go through life without adversity, this proverb implies we would miss an important point were we never to be challenged to work through difficult times.  Conveniently, life is filled with plenty of just such opportunities!

It is in the depth of our challenges that we have the best view of our own life, of our present degree of Self-realization, of a fear we can dissolve in order to live a more fulfilled and happy life.  Just as it is within the stillness of our yoga that our most rare gems are to be found, so it is within our darkest moment that gifts await.

Greet adversity with increased calmness.  Demonstrate to yourself that you can handle anything.  That nothing steals your peace.  Ever. This is what you practice each day you step onto your yoga mat. Practice being faced with challenges and rising above them to find peace under any circumstance.

Learning to discover deeper strength, greater peace and new solutions to old problems from within our most difficult times, also serves as a model for the global response required if we are to meet the adversity facing our planet.  It is within this kind of peace that all of the world's problems will ultimately be dissolved.

Just like there is no such place as 'away' when we think of throwing something there, there is no such time or place called 'later' when it comes to living in right action.  No such thing, just an excuse to avoid ourselves.  Every choice matters, especially during our most difficult times.

How we handle adversity defines our power as individuals.  The seeds we plant through our actions and our thoughts create in turn the life we live.  No deals.  No exceptions.  No way around it.  We deliver ourselves to ourselves in every moment – good and bad.

Care about every little thing as if your life depends upon it.  Your happiness does.  Plant seeds of good in every action and every thought, and watch your life turn into the magic show of bliss and blessings that this life is meant to be.  Practice your yoga, live as a yogi in the fullest expression of detachment doing the right thing.  There is no need and no place for worry.  The universe will provide.

Adversity is also our reminder to be humble.  Say thank you, embrace these moments for the richness they possess and don't miss out on one of the momentary insights they contain.  Your life is about to change for the good.

It's Yoga's Fault!

By H.J. Klingman

Yoga stressed me out. Yoga made me bloated. Yoga hurts my hips. Yoga took up too much of my day. Yoga made me feel not good about myself. Yoga did this, yoga did that….. It's yoga's FAULT!! These are the thoughts that raced through my head while practicing in yoga classes over the past few months. Having maintained a very consistent practice for years, I was beginning to actually HEAR myself during the 90 minute class. Once I began hearing myself, I wanted to smack myself in the face. How could my subtle mind really be so negative, and BLAMING yoga for everything I was thinking and feeling? Well, in my shock I began to be quiet. And still. And listen more closely. And what I heard then shocked me even more: “It’s not YOGA’s fault…. YOGA didn’t do anything…. YOU did these things to yourself. You just need something/someone outside of you to blame for these things…..”  WHOA.

Ok, slow down, I thought. This is heavy. When I was first open to receiving this truth I immediately became defensive. “But… but… but…” Then I began to relax, letting go of judgement of this truth… and I began to let it be the truth, and to sit with it. During the next several weeks of yoga classes after this happened, I slowly began to allow myself to see it, both inside of the yoga room and out. I realized that it wasn't only yoga I blamed. I blamed people in my life and things happening around me all throughout the day! I blamed people for the way I felt, for my happiness or lack thereof. I blamed the yoga teacher, the heat, the food I ate, and even the postures for the pain in my body. Reflecting openly and honestly, it was my own ego that made me push into the posture incorrectly further than it was ready to go. The yoga never hurt me, I hurt me.

Then I decided to stop. JUST STOP IT, I thought. Start taking responsibility for the decisions I make, the food I eat, the way I do the posture, the way I react to the teacher, the way I choose to feel or react to my loved ones….

This has been a very difficult lesson to learn, and at times it leaves me feeling like having a downright temper tantrum. It has also empowered me on a new level that I did not know possible. I can now be responsible for the life I want to live, without making everyone and everything else around me the blame. While circumstances will ALWAYS happen, we have a CHOICE how to react to them. For years my teachers told me this, and I finally heard it. I felt it. I continue to try to apply it. It isn’t always easy, being the one that has to accept responsibility for feeling crappy, or hurting myself. Sometimes I want to just blame someone else! But, realizing this has allowed me to free the ones I love from the responsibility of making me happy. If I want to be happy, it’s up to me. If I want to be healthy, it’s up to me…. My dad always had this mantra he would repeat to me, and now I can finally hear it’s importance:

If it is to be, it’s up to me.

I can now say that "it's yoga's fault" that I am more awake, more aware, and more alive than ever. And it's up to me to remember this and continue to strive for the best life I can live.

Love & Bikram

By Erin Wall My favorite movie as a teenager was “Love & Basketball” mainly because I played basketball and so did my boyfriend at the time. So naturally when I fell in love with Bikram Yoga, I expected my husband would be a yogi too! Not so much…

 One of the hardest parts of Bikram Yoga for me is getting my husband to take class on a regular basis and by regular, I mean once every two or three months. He “hates” it and I can’t blame him all that much because I hate it some days too. What keeps me coming back day in and day out even when I hate it because I know how good it is for me. This is why I want it so bad for him - I don’t want to be 80 years old and rockin’ life while he is complaining about back pain- nor do I want to live a day without him. When I was at teacher training, he came to visit a few times and at one point he told me he would do a 30 day challenge with me when I got home. Well, when I first got back from teacher training, I was on a yoga high; it was all I wanted to do, it was all I wanted to talk about, think about, etc. I figured he would hop on my bandwagon and do his challenge then. There always seemed to be some sort of excuse as to why he couldn’t do the challenge; “I’m going to be out of town a lot this month”, “The holidays are too busy”, “How am I supposed to find time to take two hours out of my day every day” etc.  These are the same excuses we have all used at one point or another. It’s easier to make the excuses then it is to make the commitment to coming every day. It’s hot, it’s hard, and it’s brutally honest. But as most of you know the 90 minutes of struggle, pain, and sacrifice is so worth it. After pushing the yoga on him for a while, I finally gave it a rest and came to terms with it that he just isn’t ready for Bikram Yoga in his life. I even had Bikram sign a book for him that said “Do More Yoga” and gave it to him for Christmas. I’m sure you can guess where that book ended up, no not in the trash… just on the book shelf collecting a lot of dust.  I know at some point it will be a part of his weekly, maybe even daily life. I mean he does still owe me a 30 day challenge.

If your significant other just refuses to do yoga with you or thinks you have completely lost your mind, don’t get upset or take it personal, just do your yoga. One of my favorite quotes is, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.” I figure at some point, the yoga glow will catch on and they will want to have it as well.

Your Focus Determines Your Reality

By Nicole Deacon

“I can’t take the heat” “I’m not flexible” “I need to get into shape first”  “I’ll never be able to do that”  “I can’t bend my knee” “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, I won’t I won’t I won’t” As a teacher we hear these words every single day.  Before class students pull us aside and say I wanted to let you know I can’t ________ fill in the blank.  Well, not with that attitude!The beautiful thing about this yoga in my opinion… is quite frankly… it doesn’t matter.  Not to be mean or harsh, but really… it doesn’t matter what you can’t do.  What matters is you try the right way to the best of your ability.  Bikram Yoga has nothing to do with and is not concerned with what you can not do YET!!! The only thing you need to be concerned with is what you CAN do.  Do everything you can to the best of your ability and you will receive the benefits of this yoga.  Maybe all you can do that day is get to class.  Maybe all you can do is breathe.  Maybe all you can do is 10% of the posture.  Great!  Do that!  Come back the next day and do that again!There is a universal law called the "Law of Praise and Increase".  If you want a dollar and have a dime and you curse the 90 cents you don’t have, you won’t get it.  But if you praise the 10 cents you do have, more will come to you.This yoga is designed to heal the body.  It is physical therapy.  You can come when you are injured, sad, depressed, overweight, when you are not at the top of your game.  When you leave class you will feel good.  If you continue to come you will start to improve your body and your well-being.In my experience as a practitioner and a teacher of this yoga I have seen miracles happen.  If you focus on the things you can do, pretty soon you can do things you never thought possible.  If you spend your energy and attention on what you can’t do you get bored, frustrated, injured.  But as you train your mind to focus on what you can do, you will continue to be able to do more and more.

One of most clear examples of this is our student Jeffery Derwallis.  He fell from a 3 story building while serving in the Marine Corps. The result was a "burst fracture"of the 1st lumbar vertebra creating severe damaged to his spinal cord. Soon after complications arose and he became a "complete" paraplegic.  It would have been easy for him and completely justified to come into this room and say I can’t do this yoga.  I can’t balance on one leg, I can’t stand up, these postures are impossible.  No one would have questioned him or blamed him if he felt this way.

That’s not what he did.  Instead all he did was what he COULD do.  In the early stages of the game we looked at postures one by one.  Can you do this?  Great!  How about this?  Not yet, okay well do this.  When he started it was difficult for him to stay seated without falling backwards, the teacher handed him his feet during bow pose, he wasn’t able to sit down in fixed firm.  In 2008 he  began his first 60 day challenge! His circulation had improved so much that the veins started to become visible in his legs and feet. The numbness and pain in his hands was gone. And he lost 36 lbs. Two years after he started the Yoga he was able to touch his hands palms together in Eagle and touch his head to the floor in Fixed Firm. In Feb 2011, he got on to his feet for Pada Hastasana! For the first time in 20 years his legs held his weight without any kind of brace. Little by little he built strength and vitality where for so long there was none.  To quote him, “ Since starting my yoga practice my health has improved 1000% along with just about every aspect of my life. “

Let Jeff be our example.  To quote Star Wars, “Your focus determines your reality.”  So focus on the things you can do.  Can you lock out in standing bow?  No, okay can you grab your foot, can you stretch forward, and can you kick back?  Great!  Do that.  Come back the next day and do that again.   The object of yoga is not the posture.  The object of yoga is you.

Can you control the government, the economy, your parents, your kids, your spouse, your boss, and your ten-year-old high school injury?  NO!!  What can you do?  Can you show up to yoga?  Can you breathe?  Can you focus one spot?  Can you lie still?  Can you be kind to your neighbor?  Can you smile at a stranger?   Can you?  Can you?  Can you?

Just try.