Bikram Yoga: Sweating in a 105 Degree Room

Over seven years ago, I began a discipline that has made me feel better physically and mentally than anything I’d previously done in my life.  Not only did this discipline, called Bikram Yoga, enable me to release the chronic aches and pains I’d spent years trying to ignore, but also it bestowed upon me a kind dexterity I couldn’t have previously even imagined ascertaining.  From this dexterity, has come a level of mental acuity that has empowered me to confront and overcome my fears, and pursue my life goals with the focus, strength and staying power needed to tackle any roadblocks. 

That being said, I must admit that when I was first invited to attend a Bikram Yoga class, images of people dressed in flowing robes meditating in a sleep-like state came to mind.  To be blunt, my “new age" detector went off.  To my surprise, while this yoga does indeed have calming, meditational qualities to it, there is nothing sleep-like about it.  In fact, in Bikram Yoga you are exercising what is known as “active mediation.”  In active meditation, your eyes are always open, and there are only two states your mind occupies: getting into and maintaining a physical pose, known as asana, and “not being in a pose,” known as savasana. 

A Bikram Yoga class consists of two sets each of 26 different poses which you orient your body into and out of — and broken into a standing series and a floor series —  over the course of 90 minutes (in a classroom setting with an instructor).  Many of the poses are incredibly challenging to get into, and, especially for a newcomer, exhausting to maintain for the duration of the pose.

The incredible beauty of the series is that each pose logically builds upon its predecessor, and all of the poses in the series are reflective upon one another, working up over the course of the series to three separate crescendo poses — the Half Moon, the Triangle, and the Camel, also known as the healer of the spine.  The entire series repairs, revitalizes and rejuvenates the heart, the lungs, the internal organs, the spine and all major bones and muscles, and as such, the order of the poses in a class never changes. 

Adding to the magnificence of the series is the addition of heat (the room is heated to 105 degrees) to exponentially increase the impact of the yoga.  People generally wear bathing suits, and are dripping wet by the end of class.  For the most part, drinking water is not even allowed during class. While on some level this may sound like perpetrating a hate crime against yourself, and indeed there are many times that “ego mind” is whining, “I’m tired, I’m sweating, I’m thirsty,” the truth of the matter is that within a few classes, your body dramatically adapts to the conditions.  Your flexibility, strength and stamina magnify, you start realizing the benefits of full lung capacity breathing, you begin to learn how to control your heartbeat and breathing rates, and out of necessity, the distractions of the outside world fade into the distance.

This is not meant to imply that it ever gets easy.  Some days are more challenging than others.  Some poses evoke more aches than others, but in the words of my yoga teacher, “I'm okay with that.”  Every class is both a tremendous life gift that you’re giving to yourself and a gentle reminder that nothing worth having in life is ever free.  Then again, it's just "practice," and my worst days in class are better than any days that I don’t show up.  That awareness has increased my level of humility and made me more compassionate not only to others but to myself as well. 

But, I think that the real secret of this yoga is that it has given me a mechanism that I can use for the rest of my life for creating virtuous cycles where form can flow from my thoughts, and vice-versa.  Enriched with that capability, I increasingly have the courage to hold a higher picture of myself, and the wherewithal to pursue my life path with incredible deliberateness, decisiveness, and directness.  And for that, I feel quite lucky.

There is not much that I am comfortable proselytizing about.  This is an exception.  For a directory of Bikram Yoga schools, click here.