Greetings! 

As Americans, we are afforded so many opportunities that we often take them for granted.  We have the ability to create our lives in pretty much any way we deem suitable.  So many have forfeited these freedoms by becoming lulled by television, overeating, apathy, laziness and a host of other things.

Pause now and reflect on how very privileged we are in America to do and create as we choose.  If you are confused about the path to take, allow your mind to wander and find peace in our Studio.  All of the answers you ever sought reside within you.

See you in the hot room whether it is hot outside, or not!

Student of the Month and New Teacher: Jessie

Bikram Yoga has definitely been a guiding force; a physical and spiritual journey that has literally changed me and my life completely.  I grew up in a family that was always active and physically fit.  So I learned the lesson of working out and staying the traditional Western definition of "healthy" fairly easily, not that staying fit was always simple.  My first experience out on my own was college, during which, I managed to gain the freshman 15, or in my case, 40 pounds!  After going home for the summer and seeing all the reactions from my friends and family, I knew that I had to lose the weight.  I did some extreme dieting, took supplements like ephedra, and did lots of cardio workouts, but hadn't quite figured out how to be "healthy".  I did lose about half the weight, and it continued improving once I graduated and stopped living the "party" life, but I still didn't quite understand my body.  After a few years, I found Bikram Yoga while living in Colorado, and that was the beginning of learning to listen to my body and my spirit.

 

After my first Bikram Yoga class something inside me just knew that it was something that was going to bring good to my life.  It was the hardest and yet most rewarding exercise I'd ever done in my life, and at that point I had tried a LOT of different workouts.  At first I noticed that it helped me to figure out what kind of foods to eat - foods that benefited me.  If I made poor food decisions before I went to Yoga class then I suffered the consequences for it in class (as I'm sure you all have experienced - haha).  My first health decisions were that of self-preservation in order to better survive class.  After a while I began to understand the meaning behind those punishing food choice consequences, and that taught me how to decipher the foods that benefited my body versus the foods that were just empty calories or hurt my body.  As I changed my diet in a very healthy way, I was able to see the almost immediate effects on my body and my practice.  The changes in my diet and the encouragement of my wonderful yoga teachers in Colorado allowed me to increase my practice.  I tried and completed a couple of 30 day and one 60 day Bikram Yoga Challenge(s), during which my body would always respond so positively.  I was hooked!!

 

At that point, my husband and I were self-employed, and our home building business was not doing well in Colorado.  We made the decision to move our business to Texas and to a smaller town where we could potentially succeed and grow.  I was so sad to leave my studio in Colorado, but thought that I had learned some good lessons to take with me.  I cried all the way home after my last yoga class there especially since my new town did not have a Bikram Yoga studio.  We did well at first but as the housing market declined I chose to get an outside corporate job to supplement our income.  We slowly came to the realization that we needed to close the business.  Again, it ended up being for the best.  I didn't like my job at all, as it did NOT fit my personality, but it was paying the bills and would allow my husband to go back to school to get his degree.  During this time I was still working out at a regular gym and eating healthily, but I was becoming more and more miserable every day.

 

Click on link below to hear mesmorizing chanting

For more than a decade, Ani Choying Drolma - a most unlikely of rock stars - has shared Buddhism's sacred chants with a growing number of fans worldwide.

 

But she found this path almost by accident.

 

Ani Choying Drolma can't remember when she started singing, but she does know that her formal training began at 13 when she joined the Nagi Gompa monastery near Kathmandu.

 

Soon after her arrival, the Rinpoche, or head Lama, recognized her talent. He and his wife began teaching her sacred chants, following a tradition that has been passed down from teacher to student for generations in the Himalayas.

 

"They often made me sing on whatever occasion took place," she says. "I used to be entertainer for everyone. But somehow my teacher and his wife were really, really enthusiastic about my singing. I used to enjoy it, but without thoughts or ideas of what they were up to. But now I really, really see it clearly. They knew it - what my future was."

Finding Inner Peace

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Bikram Yoga: Its Claims, Benefits, Purpose and Treatments 

 

          

Bikram Yoga, named for its creator, Bikram Choudhury, yogi to the stars, is the newest trend in Hatha Yoga.  Often termed "hot yoga," each class consists of a twenty-six asana (a stable posture or pose used in prolonged meditation) series completed in a recommended room temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit accompanied by a 60 percent humidity level.  Like other forms of Hatha yoga, it focuses on the importance of meditation and breathing in completing each pose.  However, unlike traditional forms, the Bikram method is said to be a "comprehensive, all-inclusive workout that entails all the components of fitness: muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular (strength), flexibility, and weight loss".  According to Trisha Lamb Feuerstein, head of research for the Yoga Research and Education Center, Bikram holds extra appeal in American society because of its "no pain no gain" mentality.  "It makes you sweat (and) makes you hurt;" thus, its appeal is magnified.  Aside from its seemingly extreme aspects, its ultimate purpose is much the same as all other forms of yoga.  Similar to traditional forms, its main purpose is to promote mind-body unity and relaxation while providing a source of spiritual, psychological, and physical rehabilitation through holistic healing.  

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Note: links provided in this piece that are now defunct have been removed here.  They may be seen at the "Read More" location above, and are also sourced at the bottom of the original piece.