JiggaRoo

It’s been awhile.  The last time I did Bikram Yoga was over 6 months ago, right before I started developing my rashes.  Then I got married, then the holidays came, and before I knew it… Bikram and I had become strangers.

I decided to go today after hours of studying.  I was restless, the weather outside was perfect (crisp, cold, and gloomy), and I had been missing yoga for awhile.  I looked at the online schedule and didn’t recognize half of the teachers’ names.  So much can change in just half a year!  It was a risk having to try a new teacher my first time back – if you think all teachers are created equal, I’m here to break that illusion and tell you NO, they are definitely not.

Luckily, my teacher today was amazing.  Better than amazing.  She had a soothing voice, was very helpful, encouraged me throughout the class, and couldn’t be funnier.  Yes, Bikram can be fun (and funny).

As for me… I wanted to die halfway into the balancing series.  We were barely at balancing stick pose and I already had to sit out a few times.  The heat was getting to me.  My stomach felt nauseous.  My head was lightheaded.  I felt the onset of a Migraine.  I did not feel good.

But I got through it.  I even got myself to do the triangle and tree to toe stand poses.  No easy feat I tell ya.  Once the floor series started I stopped thinking about the lightheadedness and just let my body bend and breathe the way it needed to.

It felt like the longest hour and a half of my life, but I got through it with dignity.  At the end of it, my teacher even called me a superstar!  I don’t know when I’ll be back, but for today I just want to relish in this accomplishment.  Now back to studying.

Amazing, amazing, amaaaaazing!  That’s the only thing that ran through my head this morning as I finished my first Bikram Yoga class in a long while.  When I said I was in a “slump”, I wasn’t kidding – its been over a month since I last went.  When I entered the heated room and laid down in Savasana (Corpse Pose) waiting for class to begin, all I could think about was how much I missed this.
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I still recall my first month with Bikram Yoga – it was like I discovered a new drug – I needed it and wanted it all the time.  I came home feeling refreshed, energized, yet calm.  As the weeks went by, however, I found myself not looking as forward to the practice, dreading having to do the same 26 poses and “going through the motions” again in 105 degree heat.  I would look forward to the way my heart rate would rise throughout the class, but now I no longer hear the “thump thump thump” sound of exertion coming from my chest that thrilled me so.
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