STUDENT OF THE MONTH: AMANDA  

I began practicing Bikram Yoga in January of 2009.  I started in the living room of my roommate's house next to a space heater!  She is the one who got me hooked.  Once I was introduced to the hot room at a real Bikram Yoga studio, I knew it was an exercise I would participate in for life!  I started practicing at PBY in April of 2009, and later became an employee for a period of about 6 months.  During my employment at PBY I was able to practice at least 5-6 times a week.  Currently, I am only able to practice about 2-3 times a week due to permanent employment and a hectic college schedule. 

Bikram is a vital part of my healthcare regime. Along with my yoga practice, I run 3-4 times a week (about a 4 mile stretch).  I ride horses, and also weight train.  Bikram compliments my running, as it keeps me stretched out and limber.  I have always had scar tissue in my ankles from playing sports and a not so healthy back from several car accidents.  Both of my conditions have improved with a CONSISTENT Bikram Yoga practice.  Now my ankles are more flexible, and my back does not ache anymore.

As with all worthwhile things, it did take work to get to this point.  So it is important to note, especially for the beginners, every time I walked in that hot room for the first few months I practiced, I literally wanted to run out of the room in the middle of class.  I would ask myself every time, "Why the heck did you come back in here?!?!?!?!?" But I kept going back, knowing it was something my body needed, physically and medically. It is a way of life...period.  It works if you work it!

Interestingly enough, now what most surprises me about my Bikram experience is how excited I get before I enter the scorching HOT room!  I know that when I walk through those doors my digestive system syncs, I am ridding my body of toxins, my muscles release lactic acid, and my flexibility increases...you know the benefits!  I have learned that through my experience I can encourage others to find those same benefits.

If you have a hard time focusing in your daily life, this yoga practice forces you to only focus on yourself and 90 minutes of one activity. This aligns your thinking and retrains your brain to shut out the external (sweat rolling in your eyes, heat and humidity, mascara running down your face) and only concentrate on what's in front of you.  

From a spiritual standpoint, this yoga has helped my prayer life in so many ways.  During my personal time with God, the enemy tries to creep in and steal it away by getting me sidetracked. With the tools I have learned from my Bikram practice, I can better stay in conscious contact with God during my prayer time.

As far as I'm concerned, there is no other yoga!

WHAT'S HEAT GOT TO DO WITH YOGA? 

Many yogis have heard of Patanjali's Sutras. Often known as the 8 "limbs of yoga", they describe one's path toward achieving enlightenment through yoga. 

As many of you may already know, Yoga Asana, is just one of these 8 paths.  In the Western world, yoga is commonly equated to nothing more than a physical practice of the postures (asanas) only.  Although an asana practice does help to begin to provide clarity, it certainly isn't the end all.  It is a great place to start on your journey towards self-awareness. Indeed, it is the doorway through which many thousands of yogis have sought to deepen their spiritual awareness.

According to the yoga sutras, we can arrive at purity of body, mind and spirit through  "tapas".  Tapas can be defined as austerity and associated observances for body discipline and thereby mental control. 

The use of heat in Bikram Yoga hones the skill of focusing on body discipline and thus creates great mental control.  The heat actually hastens the process.  It follows that in order to create and maintain a regular practice in a Bikram Studio, you must be committed to finding a way through the panic of the heat one feels as a beginning Bikram practitioner.  By creating this commitment to enter the room repeatedly, systematically, Bikram Yogis find this accelerated result of tapas - body discipline and mental control.

Asanas and tapas together can help you find yourself embarking on the unfamiliar.  You will come face to face with the difference between what you want and what your current self is allowing you to create.  This revelation can create a passage way through the hypnotic spell of the everyday to deeper spiritual awareness and enlightenment.

POSTURE OF THE MONTH: COBRA

This pose is a wonderful reason not to eat too much before coming into the hot room.  If you have, you will feel all of that food or water that you drank in the standing series sloshing around in your belly.  It can be uncomfortable.  I am sure many of you are too aware of this already.  I sure am.  So for starters, eat early, prior to class and hydrate nonstop. 

Once you do lie on your belly you can consider that your bent arms and shoulders are creating a sort of box shape.  Your elbows should be tucked in tight to your body.  Your fingertips should be directly under the tops of your shoulders.  Your little baby fingers should be on the outermost side of your shoulders.  If they were any further out they would be peeking out from your shoulders. 

You keep all of your fingers together for the whole posture.  Do not splay your fingers to get better traction.  You should not need any traction with your fingers, as you should not really be resting on your arms at all.  There are many people who use this posture as a type of push up with their arms.  However, this posture is not for your arms.  It is for your spine, mainly your lower spine.  It may look impressive as people rise high above the rest. It can be distracting.  It is truly better to lift only as high as your body allows in proper form than to lift all the way up in improper form.  It is a waste of time to use improper form.  Always honor proper form in your Bikram practice.   

You should be like a cobra - the snake.  Snakes don't have any arms, and you should assume that you don't either in this posture.  Now, as a beginner, or as someone without much back strength, you may need to rely on your arms a bit, but don't cheat and rest on them.  The lifting of the body up off of the floor should come from your back strength.  That takes time - even if you were a regular practitioner and took some time off.  You will need to rebuild your strength. 

It helps to try to drop your head back as far as possible and look as far up on the ceiling as you can.  This may make your eyes feel as if they are straining to see that far back.  It may not, but for some it does.  Looking that far back can sometimes pinch in the neck or shoulders, but that is good!  That also will get better with time.  This is a perfect time to make sure that your shoulders are relaxed.  You do not want to pinch your shoulders up around your ears.  Relax them down.  That is what is meant by, "Stretch your elbows down towards your hips."   Pull your shoulders back and down by drawing your your elbows towards your hips.

Your cobra tail is just that - legs from crotch to toes together, firm, tops of your feet pressed into the ground, toes pointed.  You are breathing 80/20 breaths.  Your abdomen is tight as can be, pulled in.  Your intercostal muscles between your ribs are pulled taut. Your Adam's apple is bulging forward towards the front mirror.  It is hard to swallow.  Your buttocks are like little week-old muffins, hard as rocks. 

Right at the very end you muster the strength in your back to lift your upper body up 2 more inches.  And release, always and only breathing through your nose.  Nice work.  Now, time for second set!

MEMORIAL DAY SCHEDULE

Friday, May 27th:        9am, Noon, 4:30pm
Saturday, May 28th:    9am and Noon
Sunday, May 29th:      9am and Noon
Monday, May 30th:     9am and Noon

WELCOME TO OUR LIVING SOCIAL FRIENDS

Wow.  There are so many new faces at PBY right now.  We were and are so pleased with the response to our Living Social deal earlier this month.  It is great to  have all of you with us.  We hope that you are enjoying your PBY and Bikram Yoga experience. If there is any way that we can make this a more constructive practice time for you, please don't hesitate to let us know.  Our Director, Taz, is always ready and willing to hear suggestions and comments. She can be reached at OmStudio@PearlandBikramYoga.com.  We also have suggestion cards available at the Studio.

Although we are always thrilled to see our regular practitioners, we ask that you honor the "first-time only" customer clause in similar, future offerings.  Thank you.