Graduated!!!! * On Vacation in Kauai *

All the pain of a human life is caused by words, as is all the joy. We create words to define our experience and those words bring attendant emotions that jerk us around like dogs on a leash. We get seduced by our own mantras (I'm a failure...I'm lonely...) and we become monuments to them. To stop talking for a while, then, is to attempt to strip away the power of words, to stop choking ourselves with words, to liberate ourselves from our suffocating mantras. - Elizabeth Gilbert

Bikram yoga is not "warrior" yoga, nor would I consider it manly or macho. The Bikram method consists of 26 hatha yoga postures, including two breathing excercises, which constitute a series designed for beginners and advanced students alike. There are no levels of practice in Bikram yoga and anybody can do it. Grandmothers, fat people, people with health problems or injuries, virtually anybody can practice Bikram yoga and in the same room next to someone else who may have been practicing it for many years. There is no competition or comparison between people and there is no pressure on anyone to proceed any faster or to go any deeper than they feel comfortable or ready to. The teacher's role is to provide a framework within which the student can push themselves at their own rate. While the teaching style is designed to urge people to push and to extend themselves beyond their limits, there is equal, if not more emphasis on the student's need to listen to their body and to proceed carefully and to be safe. It is my personal opinion that there is too much "warrior" energy being manifest in the world and that it is responsible for creating the imbalance that allows us to continue the cycles of competition and violence. The ultimate goal of Bikram yoga is to help the student acheive self realization and mental peace. The heated studio and the sequence of postures was designed to create an environment within which students can seek balance between strength, flexibility and endurance. While there is a vigorous aspect to the physical practice there is equal emphasis focusing on relaxation and mental concentration or meditation.

I can't begin to consolidate all I've learned here, or even process it all yet, but I do know that yoga is a powerful tool for healing and transformation. I know that yoga helps people find peace, balance, and calm. I know that yoga is about oneself, there is no need for competition, or comparison with others. I believe that Bikram yoga has the potential to help people lead much happier lives, and that is something I want to be a part of. In the end, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives.

In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices. - Elizabeth Gilbert