News From PBY

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March 2012

Greetings!

A bunch of folks have reported to us that there has been a struggle of some kind present in their lives recently. There has been a lot of tumult and odd occurrences that make you scratch your head.

If you are in this boat then do set your expectations, but set them high. Expect good things, foresee windfalls and things that make you scratch your head with marvel at what an odd and lucky thing that has occurred for you.

Steer your ship. If you are having a hard time then come into our hot room and clear your mind. Make time for yourself to heal, to grow so that you can navigate to better waters.

See you in the hot room!

Karma Yoga

The first Karma Yoga participants were 20 eight and nine year-olds who came to Pearland Bikram Yoga to broaden their horizons. They each attend Ambassadors Preparatory School in Galveston. They practice yoga at their school, but were eager to come and try Bikram Yoga.

Taz taught these students a modified class. She commented, "They were wonderful! They did all the postures, didn't fidget and tried as hard as they could." The kids seemed to enjoy themselves too. One little person commented, ""Wow, that wasn't as hard as I thought."

Thanks Taz, for spreading the love. Thanks to the school's Director, Dr. Patricia Williams for allowing the students to participate. Thanks to Dedra B., a PBY Yogi who asked that these young people be the recipients of Karma Yoga, a donation to the community by PBY.

"Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith."

- Henry Ward Beecher

The 'Relative' Part of Relativity - A Word on Energy in The Hot Room

Upon contemplating the energy in the hot room, we wanted to expand upon that in a simple way that makes sense to people instead of sounding like some airy fairy "yoga talk". Here's a bit on ethereal energy.

Richard Feynman, one of the best known physicists of the twentieth century, said about energy, "It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is. We do not have a picture that energy comes in little blobs of a definite amount".

The ultimate nature and origin of energy , at least so far, is for theologians and philosophers to explore and debate. Scientists and engineers just learn how it behaves and use that knowledge. Scientists use the knowledge to study and explain our world and the universe. Engineers use the knowledge of how energy behaves to make the machines and devices that make up our modern technological world.

Thanks to Albert Einstein and other scientists, we know that matter and energy are interchangeable. Yeah, it's the old E=mc² equation. Matter can be converted to energy and the other way too. Two different sides of the same coin, you might say. So energy really does appear to be everything.

While researching this subject, these studies on heart energy came up. William Collinge, PhD, tells of some fascinating breakthroughs discovered at the Institute of HeartMath in understanding the energetics of touch in his book Subtle Energy: Awakening to the Unseen Forces in Our Lives.

Since the heart creates the strongest electromagnetic field of the body (measurable from several feet away), Rollin McCraty and his colleagues wanted to find out whether our heart energy fields are really detectable at the surface of one another's bodies when we are in close proximity or actually touching.

One study involved wiring pairs of subjects up to electrodes and having them sit five feet apart. The researchers found that one person's heart energy waves (electrocardiogram output) were not detectable by the electrodes on the surface of the other person's body at that distance. However, when they were holding hands, each person's heart energy waves were detectable on the surface of the other's body, and even in the other's brain waves.

The researchers then wondered whether what was being picked up was being radiated through the air from the first person's heart, or was being conducted, like a wire conducts electricity, through skin contact. What they found was that when one person touched the other through a latex glove, the signal was still present, but was only one tenth as strong.

They then did another experiment to determine whether heart energy was transferred when the subjects were sitting closely together but not touching at all. Subjects were seated three feet apart and again wired with electrodes. Indeed, their electrocardiogram output was detectable across the space between them on the surface of each other's bodies. Thus, we now know that the heart energy field is both conducted by physical contact and radiated across space between people.

When we touch or are in close physical proximity with another, there is a real transfer of energy between us.

So there you have it. There is a lot known and even more unknown about energy. From the information that we teach our children (some information in this article was collected from a high level website dedicated to teachers and students: http://www.ftexploring.com/me/everything.html) to heady studies conducted on energy, we still do not scientifically know what it is. We do know that energy is the invisible force that creates our world, seen and unseen. As that energy enters our yoga room and is transformed by the centuries old art of yoga and each other it is then carried out into the world transforming the life that it touches. So think about that!

Namaste.

Things That Came to Me on My Mat

The mat is the one place that I can be awake and alive AND not have to think at all. I just do exactly what the teacher says and my yoga can transport me to higher states of consciousness.

I must have a magic mat because when I came into the class with burdens my mat was able to absorb them all from me, and leave me rather free.

There is no right and no wrong, there is only your vantage point.

Peace is a choice.

I choose not to own all of the preprogrammed thoughts that come into my brain. I witness some of them and allow them to pass, not judging them or owning them. It is me looking at parts of myself. Some I own and some are nothing more than my human condition and limitation that populate my mind space as a matter of societal programming.

What comes to you? Share them with me (click on this link) and see them here in the next newsletter. Feel free to be anonymous.

"Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good, and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false."

- Richard Cecil

Student of the Month: Amy

I am a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, and have been flying for 11 years. I absolutely love my job and found my dream job late in life - age 39. I share my day with anywhere from 560 to 850 people on average, each day that I fly. When I go to work I am gone for 3 days at a time. So figure 3 days x 560 to 850 people per day - well that is 1,683 to 2,553 people that are in and out of my life each week and sometimes more than that if I work two 3 day trips in a week. Basically, my entire "self" is given to others and when my work is done I need nothing more than time to decompress and nurture my own spirit.

About 5 years or so ago I read an article on Madonna and how she did power yoga. Madonna is close to my age and I think she looks amazing. I was intrigued about this power yoga thing but yoga was way too passive for me. I taught aerobics (hard core) for 22 years and started running 15 years ago so being someone that could clear my mind and sit in weird positions for hours on end just wasn't going to happen. So I forgot about it until maybe 2 years ago. My oldest son, Frankie, passed away from an undetected heart condition 2 1/2 years ago. He was only 23. Frankie passed peacefully in his sleep. I was told that that meant that God loved him very much. Well, I loved him very much too and I was, as one can imagine, having a very difficult time processing all this grief. I needed some clarity and I needed it quick. I started thinking about yoga and because I am someone that loves a challenge. I researched this power stuff....that search led me to hot yoga which led me to Pearland Bikram Yoga. I came to my first class which was with Mei and fell in love. Mei was so funny, you could barely understand her because her accent was so heavy yet she was so enlightening. I listened to every word she said, and I didn't dare not do what she said....she wouldn't let you give up on yourself....she drove me to challenge myself even more than I knew I could.

I have to say that the thing I love the most about PBY is that nobody is there to judge you. When I come into the hot room I have come into my "safe room". Safe to be me, give energy to those who need it, but also receive energy when I need it. Every time I come to class I hear something I didn't hear before, and I am constantly learning something, even after almost 2 years of practicing. The other day Dell said, "Don't give up on yourself." That drove me harder. Cindy always says "2nd time is half as long, twice as strong." You can't imagine how far those two statements push me. When I am tired and think...hmm maybe I will sit the second pose out....I tell myself....half as long twice as strong and I nail it every time. I constantly focus on what the instructor is saying...lock your knee, and I tell you what, my knee is locked, frozen and no way is it going to bend, no matter what my muscle might be screaming out at me. Taz always says, "Be in the present", and that is so true. When you take one pose at a time, don't think about what is coming up next and make sure you are breathing and not panting it's amazing just how wonderful this crazy hot stuff really is. When I talk about "my" hot yoga and people start in about yoga and how hard it is and so on I just say "that stuff is for lightweights"...you need to try Bikram yoga. It makes me really proud to tell people that I do Bikram, and it makes me even prouder when I talk about PBY and how completely amazing the studio is. I have never gone anywhere but PBY, and I would never go anywhere else. We have it so good with Taz and her staff. Taz is the most giving, soothing, energy filled, sweet spirited person I have ever met.

PBY has changed my life, and if I didn't have to travel I would be in the studio every single day. I can't say that I would do a double like some of you crazies out there but I would definitely do this amazing "HOT" yoga every day. I am strong from bones to skin...inside and out!!

If You Are:

Anywhere in the Hot Room:

Share your positive, ego-free energy
Do not fidget, wipe your sweat, drink during postures or leave the room
Practice and observe silence

On the Front Row:

You agree to be a teacher to all those people behind you. You agree to:

Move with the Instructor's words, not at your pace.
Try your hardest to do each pose to the best of your ability, without taking a knee.

On the Second Row:

Are a regular or even a newish practitioner. You agree that you may not feel strong enough that day to be a first row teacher. You may need to take some time for yourself.

On the Third Row:

You are brand new or newish to the class or maybe have or are having some difficulty that you are working through like an injury or a bad day. Watch the people on the first row to learn how to do each pose and how to conduct yourself in a Bikram Yoga class.

Hobnobbing

Our own Emilian with Bikram!

I am neither really Catholic nor really judgmental; however I have decided to give up being judgmental for Lent. I think it is a good way to hone a skill that could always use sharpening.

Perhaps you have a personal skill that could use some sharpening? Perhaps it is worth giving up even if only for an hour, if possible. Just a thought.

Many Blessings,

Taz

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