Everywhere Yoga

Bring your yoga anywhere. Photo via FYeahYoga.

I love that you can bring your yoga anywhere. What we learn on the mat can be used at any moment: at a friend's birthday party, when you're upset with someone you love, when you've stubbed your toe or missed the bus and need to deal.


Especially in Bikram, you learn this sort of 'everywhere yoga.'


Standing face-to-face in that heat, you've got to decide not to suffer, or chances are, you will. You must ignore the rest of the room -- the day, the thoughts, the world -- and enter your meditation.


Lately I've been so grateful that since I returned from the holidays, it feels like my yoga is back. Not only while I'm practicing (and I have had two of the most electric, ecstatic classes I've ever experienced this week), but also during the small moments of my day, I am calm, at peace, in the moment.


I am patient, even during the annoying moments or when I encounter frustrations or sadness.


I am my yogi self again, finally! Body, mind, and spirit have aligned, and it feels beyond wonderful. Have you experienced this sort of interconnected joy? Once you have, losing it can be really hard. And during our travels and my hiatus from the home studio, I felt as though I had lost that self-loving, flexible, upbeat yogi me.


Well, welcome back, yogi me!

You are your meditation, not the world around you. Photo via FYeahYoga.

Today at the studio I practiced in a class of 60 people. 60 yogis! We were sardines, piled in the room. I was in the first row, on the hot side. I was a puddle before pranayama even got going! At one point, I literally felt as though I had melted. I was a wet noodle.


It was awesome.


I was definitely the flower petal blooming! I loved the warm up series, and the way my body just moved to the words, bending and opening and relaxing into each posture. There was no resistance; I could not resist any posture because I had no energy to overcome the intense heat. (Before class, I checked the little thermometer up on the teacher's podium. It read 107! And that's before everyone was in the room, working up a sweat.) Incredible. It's amazing to me what a difference those two to three degrees make!


It was a beautiful class. Such an intense mixture of concentration from the new students, as they strained their ears to listen to the words and do the postures correctly, and joy and strength from the advanced students, as though their energy and expertise were pulling the rest of the bodies through when they thought it was time to give up.


We had a fair amount of drama in class, too. During the warm up, a new guy decided he had to leave the room. He was muttering "I'll be fine, I'll be fine" as he marched out of class, our teacher desperately asking "Where are you going?!" in between sets. He did come back, which was impressive. And the yogi by the door who didn't have enough room for Triangle finally figured out that it would help to scoot up toward the mirror.


We got through. We made it. And I was actually laughing the whole way through, marveling at what an interesting psychology experiment a yoga room really can be sometimes.


The lady next to me and I were chuckling at a few points along the way, too. Right before Full Locust she put her whole arm on my arm, locking us together as if we were one strong yogini, a force to be reckoned with.


We both smiled, dripping sweat in each other's space. And then we rocked the posture.


This was truly the bliss of Bikram: to be so close to your fellow yogis, so overwhelmingly given in to the situation, so intensely and intently present in the room. Unable to resist, and not wanting to.


To be able to smile through the second set of an exhausting posture while most other yogis are cringing and letting themselves to suffer instead of relax.


To, quite simply, be there.


To be.


I felt exhilarated. I'm going back as soon as I can.

Enjoy your yoga in the everyday. Photo via FYeahYoga.