Day 3 - Bikram Yoga Challenge: Keep the Mind in the Room

From October 2008 Yoga Competition

Me at the 2008 Yoga Championships in Dallas, Texas


One of the hardest things about Bikram Yoga is keeping the mind in the room and on yoga.

I made it to the 6:30 pm class today and decided to switch it up a bit and put my mat on the left side of the room. WHOA! I know, I am wild and crazy like that. I normally like one spot and always try to get to the studio early enough to make sure to get my spot but today I was a little later than normal so rather than be annoyed with myself for not getting their early, I used the opportunity to expand my "spot" selection. It is good to move around the room to not get too comfortable in any one spot. Particularly for me in preparation for teacher training, I need to get use to just setting up where ever there is room, no spot can be a favorite spot at teacher training!

And do you know what I saw AGAIN today? Some guy had a tattoo on the side of his torso! Stars this time and in blue and red colors. Is this a new trend? I've never heard of this being done, well, except for the one time my friend mentioned it and yesterday when I saw it for myself. If you know the significance of the side tattoo, please let me know. I am so curious why that spot on the body is so popular. They aren't just cool graphic tattoos either, two were words going down the side, and the one today was a series of stars. So interesting.

As I am smiling to myself at the star man, the instructor is trying to get everyone to squeeze together so more people can come in. I sat myself on the left side of the podium. (I know, yesterday I was on the right side of the podium. Big change. Whatever, I have issues, I already mentioned that in previous posts.) The last person to get in class managed to squeeze in between me and another person on the front row. Now there is a person about 6 inches away from me. This is fine with me, I have room, I think.

We start class, everything is going fine. I get a stitch in my left side which makes it difficult to do Standing Head to Knee and Standing Bow Pulling and I was already having a hard time staying in Standing Bow Pulling so this was just an added excuse to fall out early. My side hurt through Standing Separate Leg Stretching, then I seemed to forget about it. I stayed in Triangle longer than yesterday but I still fell out early. Before my 60 day challenge is up, I am going to stay in all the postures the whole time, darn it!

The floor series is where I noticed the girl next to me even more. In the floor series, for some reason the mats shift a little and some times my mat can end up crooked or inches off from where I started. And this happened to the lady next to me. Now you might be asking yourself why I think it was her and not me. That is easy, because I was next to the podium and my mat was already butted up against the edge of the podium, I had no where to go. As a matter of fact, I noticed at one point my mat was folding a little because I had scooched it toward the podium even more.

At one point I swear the lady next to me had scooched over 4 - 5 inches towards me! I was feeling a bit claustrophobic! I mean, I had a podium on one side and a lady on the other that seemed to be inching toward me with every posture. She wasn't touching me and really she wasn't even in my personal space, yet, but I was TOTALLY aware she there and tried really hard to not be annoyed by it. I already mentioned in Day 1's post about my personal space issues, something I am trying to work on. So as I laid there in Savasana after each pose, I kept thinking SHE was going to be bothered with being so close to me, but no such luck. She was focused and her mind was on yoga, which is where mine should have been.

It is amazing to me, I have been practicing Bikram Yoga for 4 years now and I still have so much to learn and so far to grow. Some days my mind is completely on yoga and in the room, other days my mind is a million miles away, organizing my day, thoughts and to-do's or worrying about things in class, like mat scoochers. This is why I love Bikram Yoga, because even though it is the same 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises, it is different every time, there is always something to learn, something to improve or something to discover. Tomorrow I hope to discover what it feels like again to stay in Standing Bow Pulling the entire time. :D Namaste

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