On Bikram yoga
http://www.closettherapyblog.com/?p=1724
Julie, a Bikram teacher, explains for the benefit of those who've never tried a class but make judgement..
Julie // Jun 9, 2008 at 12:48 am
We do not pay Bikram royalties. He shakes our hands and asks us to teach to our students the way he taught us! The heated room is set to allow dilation of the blood vessels and arteries. You burn fat quickly. I reformed and reshaped my body very quickly and have remained that way! In 9 months I went from a size 12 to a size 2 and have remained that way! It is also a simulation of Calcutta, India where Bikram is from.
Yes he has given many reasons as to why the hot room! You have to listen and open your mind to understand and you may not all be ready! That’s ok! Too complicated for people unwilling to allow the process each person goes through in the hot room mentally. Yes you are all entitled to how you feel. Part of the anger and frustration is toxins wanting to exit the body. It’s all detoxification. Detox doesn’t just happen in sweat, blood, urination, etc it also happens emotionally too! You cannot separate the mind from the body! It comes out especially with the backward bending.
I have had periods of time where I felt hatred towards my own yoga but it’s my mind not the yoga. As the injuries are from ‘the ego’ not listening to the body not the yoga itself! Listen to what you’re saying in your post. You’re allowing people to not take responsibility for their own actions towards themselves when they are healing their own bodies. No one needs a babysitter to know how to take care of themselves.
That said, Bikram yoga is the only yoga I have done where the teacher is actually watching you 110% of the time. In most yogas the teacher is joining you and how can they ‘protect’, teach and/or guide you when they are busy with their own practice?
I grew up in a different yoga myself! Under one of Bikram’s friends, Yogi Amrit Desai with Kripalu Yoga. They are like night and day! I very much enjoyed the yoga and was fortunate to be exposed so young. I wanted something more cardiovascular and intense with meditation. I am a survivor of a drunk driving accident and had 8 vertabraes damaged with my orthopaedic surgeon wanting to cut into my lower lumbar spine due to herniation. This was after a year of physical and massage therapy. I did 90 days of Bikram Yoga against his advice and guess what………NO herniations anymore!
The heated room does not dry you out. What dries you out is too much coffee, soda and not drinking what your body is mostly made of……water! After 15 weeks of looking like a leprosy patient ridding my body of a build up of overuse of antibiotics in my internal organs and in my digestive tract by doctors in my teens and twenties, my skin radiates gorgeously. Polypharmacy and abuse of antibiotics is a big problem and cannot be denied in our culture. More and more people’s bodies and immunity are being destroyed with this epidemic and yoga is one way of correcting the problem.
The detoxing is intense and your mind has to be open to the possibilities. It’s not for the faint of heart. Just come and do the physical work and the weak mind will strengthen! Make all the excuses and pass judgement all you like but ultimately one only ever attacks what one is ignorant of……. Yes yoga is to relax and I assure you as your mind gets stronger your body will breeze through this yoga with meditation.
This is a medically backed yoga. This isn’t incense and candles. There is science behind this yoga. This is no more a cult than any other yoga or any church related gathering. Look up the definition of cult and you will understand that it is a large group of people with similar ideas and beliefs. Miriam webster’s exact definition is right below!
cult
Pronunciation:
\ˈkəlt\
Function:
noun
Usage:
often attributive
Etymology:
French & Latin; French culte, from Latin cultus care, adoration, from colere to cultivate — more at wheel
Date:
1617
1: formal religious veneration : worship2: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents3: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents4: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator 5 a: great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b: the object of such devotion c: a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
Wow that’s football, hockey, ashtanga yoga, the republican party and any other entity you would like to bash on! Ignorance is dangerous.
Why take the word of a yogi………try it yourself more than once, 3 months-3 times per week minimum to see what it can do for you! It takes time to work through a weak mind and some of you may not be ready to handle that and I can completely respect that!
Humility comes with this yoga too. You learn the most amazing things about yourself and your surroundings. All those judgements posted on this website are patterns themselves within whoever posted them that cannot be denied. Yoga is a way to break those patterns that weaken the mind, body and spirit. When your mind has been strengthened……….join us again and try again! There will be no judgement of you! Only your own of yourself and others!
This series consists of 26 postures of 84. There is a more advanced series but your mind has to make it through the first 26 first! You have to crawl before you stand!
Wishing all the good health and open minds!
Julie
Julie // Jan 20, 2009 at 11:56 pm
I return again to see that some have tried. That’s step one. Continue. Someone was very right, that is a teacher training and NOT an average class. And as I mentioned before ignorance is dangerous. So if you can judge something you have not tried than you show your repeated offense of ignorance. Even trying it only a few times with your mind already made up from someone else’s fear or your own than well your mind is closed and it will get weaker and weaker, frigid like your body and with that brings ailment.
Also to educate the people who do not know. Hatha yoga refers only to the fact that it is physical and you show your ignorance again (ignorance being lack of knowledge) by saying that you will go back to hatha yoga. You were doing hatha yoga by physically being in the room and doing the postures. You did your raja yoga by mentally toughing it out. Fix the body and you will fix the mind. Sit around and chant and you will still have the unheatlhy body and an even weaker mind.
If you tried one location or one teacher and that’s it than you have not given it a very good chance. Did you date more than one guy or girl before you married? Well brother’s and sister’s there ya go! You will not like every teacher or location as you will not like every restaurant in a chain. Each place is slightly different. And honestly if you cannot handle Bikram yoga and the amazing dialogue than maybe your mind is still not ready. If you need another form of yes hatha yoga that’s ok too. As long as you are getting hatha yoga in your life to start. Than come back when you’re body is stronger and maybe you will be ready. You will find it ery gratifying then.
Avoid speaking without knowledge it only shows your lack of experience and understanding. There is so much to learn out there. Just keep learning and know that you didn’t like every teacher in school either. SO it’s not about the teacher. Or the school it’s about taking responsibility for your responses. No one should steal your peace. If they do then you are the loser. You lose out on your peace and no one is more responsible for this action than yourself! The hardest part is accepting the truth. People don’t want truth, it’s too hard to handle. So instead people create another reality to soften the blow and weaken the mind yet again. The truth will always set you free.
When the student is ready the teacher will appear! Not before or after. So please be careful the hate you spread. That is not yogic. Yoga is yolk. The glue that ties us all together. We are brothers and sisters.
I teach Bikram yoga and it is the most incredible feeling to watch people come back from serious ailments and injury. It’s incredible to see people come back from deep depression and drug addiction whether street or narcotic. There is nothing more rewarding than teaching this yoga. Bikram is a visionary. You don’t have to agree with everything he does or says but he has reached so many people in the western world. People who would still be sedentary and miserable.
The other main difference is even though one post mentioned this yoga is only 50 years old. Well you should spend more time reading on the subject. Bikram’s 84 postures in total are actually 5,000 years old passed on from his guru’s gurus. He worked under Bishnu Gosh telling patients postures specific to their ailments. To help ease their symptoms and heal them over time. Bishnu Gosh and he put this series together with a team of medical experts to give people the chance to have optimal health all the time as a preventative measure because of how we live, eat, sleep and behave. He was gearing it towards the western mentality. The main thing I respect is he, being Bikram did not change the postures to fit the north american fat and broken body nor screw loose brain. He is changing one BODY at a time with the ORIGINAL postures from thousands of years of yogic science and study. Their science isn’t so damned new age. We are here in the west. Their scientific study of the body has been going on for centuries. Our narcotics and pharma is new age! And it’s far more frightening than a little sweat!
The heat vasodilates the blood vessels and capillaries to allow greater tourniquet in postures. Creating pressure in the blood vessels. So release of the postures allows oxygenation of the body with blood flushing the area where you created the bend cutting off the blood for brief moments. It’s so cleansing for the body. The heat protects you and allows you to go deeper and heal more. You create your own internal heat that will cleanse the body.
And remember one thing from this information, yes we are teachers and yes we are experiencing a growth process too. Why can we not make mistakes just like you? It’s what makes us human and allows us to be relatable. We teach yoga and learn not just from our senior teachers, we learn from our students. The teacher becomes the student and vice versa thus the cycle continues.
If you are intimidated by this yoga in any way. Read his orange book. It will show you what he means. In maybe doses easier to take initially. You never know til you try what you are capable of. You mind should be open and ready to be a sponge.
To bring our yogic community together instead of apart, I grew up under Yogi Amrit Desai with Kripalu yoga. Amrit is Rajashree’s guru. Rajashree is Bikram’s wife. Kripalu is another form of hatha yoga. We are a community. Avoid hate and spread love no matter which community you come from. The only reason people strike out is in fear of others. The only fear there is is fear itself! Fear is bred from ignorance. Education is key! Read. Try things. Just do it! Try again!
Even Jesus taught turn the other cheek. The golden rule. NO matter what your beliefs. Love is the key. The world is about to see that change with Obama. The shift will be big. So enjoy each moment and share your love with the ones around you and you will have fulfilled your karma yoga.
Namaste to all!
Julie
Posted in: bikram, Thoughts, yoga on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at
Posts
