Surviving the heat of the summer (or Bikram Yoga) requires proper hydration and electrolyte balance. But most Americans operate in a state of dehydration. They simply don’t know how much better they’d feel if they just drank more water. When they get a headache they reach for a pain killer and never wonder why they…
It’s not infrequent that someone calls the studio, asks about hatha yoga and after a few minutes of conversation says, “Oh, I thought hatha yoga means hot yoga.” The words do sound similar but they are from very different languages and mean very different things. Bikram Yoga is both Hatha Yoga and done in the…
July 9th, 2010 was the 40th anniversary of the passing of Bishnu Ghosh, Bikram Choudhury’s guru. We say the word guru means teacher, though a more thorough translation is “one who removes darkness.” Bishnu was the youngest brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, the founder of the Self-Realization Fellowships in the United States and author of the…
Does the notion of a yoga competition upset you? If so, you’re not alone. It’s perfectly understandable. For those of us who have found yoga to be the sanctuary that helps us to find inner peace, relief from the stresses of our everyday life, or as the foundation of our spiritual practice, the thought of…
When was the last time you had absolutely no worries occupying your mind? Do you know what it feels like to have a calm mind, free of worries or concerns, and to truly be at ease and feel peaceful? Peace is not an intellectual concept. Peace is a state of being that comes from deep…
Bikram’s favorite way to start a lecture or an interview is to ask the audience or person interviewing him, “What is spirituality?” Most everyone is caught off guard by the question and freezes temporarily. To Bikram, spirituality is Self realization, God realization. It’s simple and complicated all at once. Acknowledgement of spirit is personal and…
If you’re reading this article you probably do Bikram Yoga regularly or at least have done it a few times. You know the grueling routine of the class. You’ve experienced the adversity of the heat and the classroom setting. You’ve stared into the cosmic mirror and had to face yourself, for better or worse, for…
Many Westerners think of yoga as doing postures either in a class or on their own. We know it’s hard, we know it’s good for us and we know we feel great afterwards. But oftentimes we leave the conscious practice of yoga right there. In simple terms, the word yoga means union; union in every…
Breath is life. If you don’t breathe, you don’t live. It’s that important and that simple. And while it can happen normally without our awareness, there are other times when the breath is shallow or irregular. The breath connects the body with the mind. When the mind is out of sorts (alignment), the breath goes…
Along with many others from all over Texas, I attended the 7th Annual Texas Yoga Asana Championship on November 8th in The Woodlands. The venue and format had been expanded greatly from past years to include the first ever Texas Fitness and Wellness Fair. But even knowing that, I can’t tell you how surprised I…