Bikram 101

I can't believe how quickly the end of this challenge is approaching, and the guest posts are just getting better and better.  How am I supposed to follow that last one?!  Thanks a lot, Robert!

As this challenge rolls along towards April, I've heard quite a few people lately saying, "Wait, but what do we do when we get to the end?  I feel like I'm just getting to the good stuff!"  If that's you, then good!  Great!  Keep practicing!  Maybe your friends think it's just a little bit crazy, but there's nothing wrong with practicing almost every day.  It doesn't have to be part of a "yoga challenge."  If you need to call it a Challenge to keep yourself honest, that's okay, but I always see the Challenges as jump-starts more than anything else.  Once you have momentum, it doesn't take any extra effort to keep cruising along at the same speed (disregarding the effects of air resistance and friction).

It's a lifetime practice, and it's a lifestyle, too.  Outside of Challenges, you just don't have to worry about "rules" and "make-up classes."  Check out what Bikram has to say on the subject:

          "Bikram," asks Lavinia stiffly, "who wants to get into something they've got to do for an hour and a half every day for the rest of their lives?"
          "Who told you that?  Did *I* ever tell you that?  Anyone who tell you you got to do Yoga every day for rest of life, or that they do full set of Yoga every day for years, he crazy or saint or both.  Regular people like us,, we got to worry about the garbage disposal don't work, Tommy's scout troop has a picnic, there's a good movie on TV - important things like that.  So some days we can't do.  That's perfectly okay if you did your Yoga right to start with."
        ~ Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class, pg 12 (1st edition)

All saints and crazy people... please raise your hands.

(I'm not raising my hand, because I often do "only" six days of yoga a week so that I can go on a hike, clean my room, go to a movie, or whatever.  Even at teacher training we will only be doing yoga six days a week - though five of the other days include doubles!)

Of course, some people are probably just looking forward to sitting on the couch eating popcorn for a week and catching up on Lost.   :)