Yoga

I’ve been practicing yoga on and off for about six years, and currently practice Bikram Yoga.  For the uninitiated, and admittedly I am simplifying here, Bikram Yoga is “hot” yoga practiced in a room that is over 100 degrees.  The practice consists of twenty-six postures each done twice and held for up to a minute each, which is a lot longer than it sounds.   As anyone who has ever tried it will tell you, Bikram Yoga is not easy.  It does, however, help with balance and flexibility, allow for mind-clearing meditation, and work the body from the inside out to achieve the benefits.   The main reason that I practice Bikram Yoga is that I hope that it will help to keep my knees in good shape so that I can avoid running injuries.

In addition to the hoped-for knee benefits, yoga teaches me lessons about life.  For example, I was recently in a class in which the teacher was obviously new and not very confident in her delivery of dialogue and instructions (the dialogue is very important in Bikram Yoga).  As a consequence, I, and I sensed others, were frustrated because we were concerned that she was keeping us in the postures too long.  If you’ve ever done Bikram Yoga, or at least if you are me, you struggle to stay in the postures for the required time and definitely don’t want to hold them for any longer than absolutely necessary (it’s over 100 degrees in the room, after all).  At first I found myself getting upset, but then I decided just to have fun with the situation.  Usually I am rather intimidated by the rigor of the class and the teachers who call me out (Shamrockstar-straighten that leg!), but since that wasn’t happening I decided to stop worrying about how well I was doing the postures and focus on “being in the moment”.  As a consequence, I probably had almost the same experience physically as I would have had in another class, but was able to let go mentally.  As they say, I took my class to a whole new level.  Life has the same challenges.  When we are faced with a situation that is not ideal, it’s easy to get angry and give up, but the alternative is to adapt to the situation, which can render the end result even better than expected.  I think that sports in general teach this lesson very well.  A game, or a yoga class, is sort of a lifetime in miniature-there are the victories, the defeats, the frustrations, and the celebrations that happen over the course of an hour or two or three.  These physical contests, whether against another team, person, or just oneself, help us to see the bigger picture of life.  I am grateful that yoga gives me a way to understand life a bit better, and hopefully act accordingly.