Bikram yoga has changed my life. As I stood in the hot room (105 degrees) sweating it out yesterday, I pondered this fact.
I realize that I should have been meditating, but I was simply amazed at how two months of exercise had impacted me so positively. I was also trying not to throw up.
Here are the five life lessons I took away:
- Improvement comes one stretch at a time. In each yoga session, the instructor encourages us to “do what we can,” but every class they also say, “Go back, lean back, fall back” and encourage us to stretch just a little bit more. Suddenly, my forehead touches the floor, or I can see the back wall in Camel pose, or I can walk out of class without feeling like I’m going to pass out. Small improvements, one effort at a time.
- We won’t believe we can until we do. Every class of hot yoga is both exhausting and exhilarating. Exhausting, because I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get through it. Sweat is in my eyes and my ears and I feel all stretched out. Exhilaration comes when I realize I’ve made it through 90 minutes. I am strong. Plus, we’re told not to leave the room. 🙂
- Strength is contagious. Every time I make it through class, I feel stronger. My body is more flexible, my arms a little more firm, and my knees don’t hurt when I go up the stairs. My confidence is oozing into my work, my writing and my relationships. When you strengthen your body, it strengthens your belief system, and that makes you feel better about everything else you’re doing.
- Getting quiet is powerful. It’s been a long time since I have been completely silent for 90 minutes. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it hasn’t happened since my birth (I even talk in my sleep). Being silent and focused is amazingly powerful. I go into the room 15 minutes ahead of class to acclimate to the heat and to lie on my mat in absolute silence. I stay usually 10 minutes after class to do the same. So, for almost two hours I am enveloped in silence. No cell phones, no texts to look at and no bad news. In that silence I have found answers.
- Slow is faster than fast. Much like the tortoise and the hare, I have found that stretching and moving slowly has completely reshaped my body in ways that kickboxing and years of aerobics did not. My middle-aged middle is going away, and my legs are stronger. It’s not from aggression but from doing what the body does naturally.
I’m sure many of you have learned these lessons from different types of exercise, and I’m not here to judge what type works for you. But yoga has changed my life by allowing me to enter into it peacefully, quietly and with a determined will.
Because although it is peaceful, yoga can kick your butt. I will go back tonight and repeat this mantra for the first 10 minutes: “Do not pass out; do not throw up.” Then I will stretch, get quiet and learn something new.
Question:
What kind of discipline has changed your life? And how has it changed it?