Here we go...

I'm a student and a teacher of yoga, and this blog is about my personal yoga practice, my search, my tentative steps toward teaching and sharing yoga in a meaningful way.

I'm preparing to take part in Bikram Challenge 101, and I'm planning to write about that as well. Bikram Challenge 101 is a great big bunch of Bikram Yoga students, worldwide, who've pledged to do a 90 minute Bikram's Beginning Yoga class every day for 101 days, starting on 1 January 2010. I've practiced Bikram yoga for a while, but I never done a class per day for more than about 20 consecutive days. This truly will be a challenge for me.

I'm going to be turning 47 years old about half-way through the challenge, and I am fairly new to yoga. Though I've dabbled at yoga over the years, I didn't have a very serious or consistent practice until October 2008. I've tried several kinds of yoga, but Bikram yoga is/was my first yoga love. I felt exhausted but exhilarated by my first Bikram yoga class. It made sense to me in a way that other yoga classes did not. About 3 years ago, I practiced Bikram yoga fairly regularly for several months, but my work schedule didn't mesh with the studio's, so I ended up taking a break for about 18 months. In Oct '08, I returned to Bikram yoga class with the hope of healing a back injury. I have gone to a Bikram class 3-7 times a week ever since. And my back healed in less than a month.

Also in October 2008, I attended a volunteer teacher's orientation for a non-profit that teaches yoga to the incarcerated, alcoholics and addicts in rehab, and to those living in shelters. My previous experience with yoga, and Bikram yoga in particular, made me want to share yoga's benefits with others. The volunteer orientation was my first clue to how intense the Bikram/non-Bikram divide can be (more about that topic later). That fall, I observed classes and acted as an assistant teacher for some of this non-profit's classes, but I wanted to learn more about teaching and other schools/styles of yoga, so in January 2009, I began a 200 hour yoga teacher training program for a style of Vinyasa Yoga. I graduated at the end of April 2009.

I taught some classes at a neighborhood non-profit yoga studio, but the studio was not doing well--no matter how low the cost of classes, no matter what sort of PR was done, attendance wasn't good. Many a morning, I waited in a cold room (there wasn't money to pay for heat) and did a little practice on my own, all bundled up in tights, sweat pants, an extra sweater, doing a bunch of sun salutations to try to warm up. Then, in the late afternoon, I'd go my Bikram studio and spend 90 minutes in the hot room, wishing I could cool down. Looking for more teaching experience, I signed up to lead exercise classes for the Arthritis Foundation. I was certified to teach their classes in the summer of 2009. I've been teaching AFE classes at a community center's senior program since early August. I also teach a "chair yoga" class at a low-income senior living facility.

I want to learn more about how to make my classes more effective. The seniors that I serve have all sorts of mobility issues and health concerns. Yoga and movement are SO beneficial for them. But I have to stick with gentle, evidence-based practice. Until I learn more, get more training, I'm afraid of teaching things that are too challenging or could lead to injury. On the other hand, without challenges, how do students improve, heal, grow? I'm trying to find a way to integrate more of what I've learned in Bikram yoga into the classes that I teach. I really hope to go to Bikram Yoga teacher training in a year or two, and if money were no object, I'd do other teacher trainings too.

I'm kinda blown away to find how much fun it is to hang out with senior citizens. I'm starting to believe that you just can't help but to become an interesting person by the time you've racked up 7 or 8 or 9 decades of living. My students are amazing people with varied and surprising life experiences. It's an honor to get to know these folks.

I believe strongly in the effectiveness of the Bikram series. I am really interested in the controversy and strong reactions surrounding Bikram and his yoga. I want to write about that stuff in some future posts.

Svadhyaya is one of those Sanskrit words that is translated a zillion different ways. It has more than one meaning, and more than one layer of meanings. But roughly, it means something like self-inquiry, self-observation, or self-study. I am fortunate to already have some excellent teachers and role-models in my life, and I'm grateful for that. Bikram says to focus on yourself in the mirror and to "look into the eyes of your own best teacher." So I am striving to learn from others but also to learn what I already know, to learn what's within me.

Now I have to run if I'm gonna make it to my 4:30 class.

Namaste.