Celebrating 11 Years

This March marked the celebration of 11 years as a Bikram Yoga teacher. I was reflecting on what brought me into the hot room for my first Bikram class that eventually led me to where I am today. 
  
Most Bikram Yoga practitioners can recall their very first class, with great detail: who the teacher was, where they had their mat, how they felt before, during and after class.  I remember nothing about my first class.  What I do remember about my first days is what brought me into the yoga room and what I received from my practice. 

 I picked up running during college, after putting on the infamous freshman fifteen.  I continued running throughout my adult years and after having my children, I started racing locally, including a few half marathons and two full marathons.  I found running to be an easy out the door and onto the street exercise that also relieved stress for me.  Often I would run with a double baby jogger.   Eventually, this caused an overuse injury to my knee and I was unable to run even a block.  A colleague of my husbands suggested Bikram Yoga to help with my injury and I thought,  "Why not."  I found positive results almost immediately.  It was not long before I was running my regular miles with yoga filling in the gaps to keep my knee strong.  But after a few months, my yoga became regular and the running was filling in the gaps.  I was finding my body to feel better and also I was handling my stress much better. 

My decision to go to teacher training had no logic to it.  In fact, it didn't make sense to me at all at the time, for many reasons.  But, I just had the desire to go and everything lined up beautifully for that to happen. Most people at training had been practicing for years and on a daily basis.  I had been practicing only five months and just few times a week.  It was what I was willing to commit to at the time with having two young children and I felt that I was getting the benefits I needed.  Once back from training, I maintained a three times a week practice and added teaching to my schedule.  I did do challenges every now and again, but always found that going back afterwards to three times a week worked best for my schedule and the balance in my life. 

 There have been times when I had taken a few weeks off for my practice.  There have been times when I practiced 4-5 times a week for an extended period of time. There have been times when I have practiced while on vacation and others times not.  But, after 11 ½ years of practice, it is still remarkable to me the benefits I still receive from the time I spend in that room.  I can see the long term effects that this practice has served me.  I have become a person I like a lot. 

I am now into my forth week of 100 days of yoga.  I went into this thinking much like I did when I considered going to training; that it was crazy and how do I have the time for it and can my body actually do it.  But I feel amazing.  I feel incredible.  My body feels strong, my mind is very clear. I am finding that outside of the yoga room, I am making decisions that promote better health as well.  I have been a lover of sugar for as long as I can remember.  I can easily fill my day with more sweets than nutritional food.  I cut that back considerably a couple weeks in to my 100 days and it seems to contributing to the benefits of my daily yoga practice.  I am excited to see my progress over the next sixty plus days and where this particular commitment takes me. 


Namaste,
Gina