Bikram 101

by Kim Corbett Johnson

I’m lying on the couch debating on going to class or not (in extreme pain, two aspirin and a hot, Epsom salt pack providing no relief) when I recall another blogger’s post about using the class to heal.

I had just completed a double the day before, first time ever doing a back-to-back. I’d experienced lower back pain before, but nothing like this. Not sure if it’s a sciatic nerve issue or not, nonetheless, it wasn’t pleasant.

The day was filled with lots of sad news. Two close friends of mine were dealing with their mom’s failing health. One dealing with newly appointed hospice staff, the other taking her mother to chemo treatments daily. Another friend had been taken to the hospital to spend his last moments fighting with pancreatic cancer. My heart was heavy with sadness and overwhelm with all of this.

As I lay there on the couch, covered with my warm blanket and purring cat, groaning in pain, it struck me that all of these hardships these people were dealing with could perhaps been prevented if they had a regular practice of Bikram yoga. I immediately sprung to my feet, had 5 minutes to get out the door and headed to my class.

My intention for the class was to heal, inspired by my suffering friends. As I lay there on the mat in pain, anxiously waiting for the bright lights to come on, I thought...

“I want more than healing. I want more than what I came for, like when I go to Trader Joes for that one thing and leave with a bag full.”

I didn’t perform to my usual 100%, but I was relieved from pain and left with that centered stillness, came home content and rested, ready to be there for my loved ones dealing with their great pain and sorrow. Thank you, Bikram.

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Kim Corbett Johnson, is new to Bikram Yoga, and practices at Bikram Yoga St. Charles. She began 101 day Challenge January 2, 2010, and had attended one class before this. She started with the intention of completing a 30 day Challenge, which looked impossible… And now is thinking about completing a 365 day challenge. She’s the President of a company she started, Enhanced Lifeskills Solutions. She teaches participants proven principles for successful living anchored in the science of synergetics.

It's incredible how little control we have over our lives.

I mean, so many of the things that affect us every day are completely out of our hands.  We don't control the weather. We don't control the tectonic plates.  We don't control the people in our lives - our bosses, our employees, our friends, our family.  Anytime we apply for a job, join a class, or even just step out into the road, we can set off a chain of events that is completely out of our hands.

And we certainly can't control our yoga classes.  We can't control the teacher.  We can't control the temperature of the room.  We can't control the actions of other people in the room.  We can't even control our own bodies, not fully.  They change from day-to-day in ways that we can't perceive or understand.  We might do everything "right" and still get run over by the yoga truck, or we might do everything "wrong" and end up feeling great in class.  Some days, it seems as random as a coin toss.

I purposely didn't describe this as a "loss of control."  I'm talking about the crystal-clear realization that we never even had control at all.

So... so what?  What do we do?

We breathe.

We can't control the events that surround us, but we can control the way we respond.  And that is what yoga teaches us.  We learn that it doesn't matter what environment we're in, what other people say to us, or what happens around us.  We can breathe through all of it.  That's the part that we can control.  Sometimes, it's the only part that we can control.

But it makes all the difference in the world.

That's all we have left, folks. Just seven days.

Bikram yoga really isn't that expensive.

Over the past 93 days of practicing this yoga... I have begun to pay attention to my body and the role each limb plays in helping me execute my poses. And as a result, I have some bodily short-comings.

Earlier this week, JoJo wrote this very cool post which connected the Bikram Yoga practice to the spirituality of Lent and Palm Sunday.  She wrote beautifully about yoga in connection with prayer, penitence, almsgiving, and self-denial.

Shortly after I read that post, I was a participant in a ritual from a different religion tradition, when I attended a Passover dinner at the home of some family friends.  Passover is a Jewish holiday that takes place in the spring, right around the same time as Easter.  The Passover dinner is called a Seder, and it follows a specific structure and order where we read certain passages, sing certain songs, eat certain foods, and retell the story of the Jews' exodus from slavery Egypt - the story that includes Moses, a burning bush, the cruel Pharaoh, the ten plagues, the hasty flight from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and forty years of wandering in the desert.  As the Italian proverb says, "Even if it's not true, it's a good story."  I grew up in a sort of agnostic Jewish/Christian hybrid household, so I've never taken these stories to be precisely true, but the Seders were a regular part of my childhood.

Of all the Jewish holidays, Passover is one of my favorites, because it revolves around a simple and powerful theme: liberation.

At the beginning of the night, we read, "It is said that every person, in every generation, must regard him or herself as having been personally freed from bondage in Mitzraim, the biblical land of Egypt."  We are reminded to be grateful for our freedom, and we honor all people who have struggled or are struggling for freedom.

This theme doesn't just apply to the people of Israel, but to all people.  Bondage and liberation come in all different forms.  Bondage can mean literal slavery, but it can also mean slavery to society, to habit, to other people, and to your own mind.  Liberation can involve a flight from Mitzraim, with the miraculous parting of the seas, or it can involve killing your self (your ego) for 90 minutes in a hot room, until the mental chatter miraculously fades away.  The seas part, the veil lifts, and you glimpse your true Self.

One of my favorite Passover songs is Dayenu.  Dayenu is sung after the telling of the Exodus story, and the word means, "It would have been enough."  Here's a passage from my own (very secular, Unitarian Universalist) Haggadah (book):

"What does this mean, 'It would have been enough'?  Surely no one of these [steps] would have been enough for us.  It means to celebrate each step towards freedom as if it were enough, then to start on the next step.  It means that if we reject each step because it is not the whole liberation, we will never be able to achieve the whole liberation.  It means to sing each verse as if it were the whole song - and then sing the next verse!"

That's "dayenu."  So...

When you stand on the line, toes and heels together, and meet your own eyes in the mirror... dayenu.

When you stand on a solid, locked-out knee for 60 seconds, 20 seconds, or even just 10 seconds.. dayenu.

When you are able to attempt every one of the 26 postures in the series... dayenu.

When you stand a little straighter and walk a little taller... dayenu.

When you breathe through a stressful situation instead of losing your cool... dayenu.

When the old familiar knots and tensions start to melt away from your body... dayenu.