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I come from a tradition of Bikram Yoga, a practice
that is very regimented, rigorous, and black and white. For many years, for
myriad reasons, this practice worked well for me. As I've grown older and found
myself wandering into the mysterious waters of menopause, my physical
flexibility has lessened, but my mental flexibility has flourished. Over the
past few years, my changing flexibilities have led me to broaden my yoga
practice.
As the owner of a yoga studio, I am in the unique and
thrilling position of creating a vision. In the fifteen years that I've been
doing this work, I've learned a lot. For example, I know that it takes a
village to run a business. I am blessed to be surrounded by people who share
and support the vision of The SweatBox. As The SweatBox visionary, I am excited
to share my expanded view, one that acknowledges all yoga as good yoga and all
bodies as perfect bodies.
Something that's become crystal clear to me as I've
expanded my personal yoga practice and teaching knowledge over the years, is
how significant human variation is
and how important it is to honor these differences. There is no one
"right" human. We are all different and perfect in our own way. As a
yoga teacher and student, I have found that expanding my view of "the
right way" to practice yoga has been profoundly liberating. I want to
share that with my community.
Bikram Yoga everyday is great for many bodies, but
it's not great for ALL bodies. The Pranayama that we do in Bikram, for example
is an amazing exercise that develops lung capacity, efficiency, and oxygen flow
in the body. The repetition of postures in Bikram Yoga can, for many of us,
create an unparalleled moving meditation that leads to significant stress
reduction.
Vinyasa Yoga everyday is wonderful if you have the
strength and agility. The unexpected nature of the flow offered by the teacher,
the new and different challenges that come with every unique class help us stay
creative and open-minded. But a daily Vinyasa Yoga practice is also not the
magic bullet for all bodies.
A Bikram Yoga practice is a therapeutic, healing
practice to be sure. Adding Vinyasa and Yin Yoga (which are also healing and therapeutic)
into a regular yoga practice, can facilitate create a greater sense of physical
and mental balance in one’s life.
Many Vinyasa students who have been staunchly Vinyasa-based will find
themselves surprised and delighted by how a regular practice of Bikram provides
healing and respite for their tender shoulders and wrists.
Yin Yoga is the counter, the balance for both
Bikram and Vinyasa practitioners that brings a greater state of physical,
mental and emotional equanimity to all bodies. This technologically turned-on
world we live in is fast-paced and often relentless. Yin gives us all an
opportunity to slow down, to step off the moving walkway.
Each of our skeletons, the placement of our organs,
the hormones that course through our bodies, are individual and unique. As
such, we need to experience a variety of yoga options to understand what serves
us. This will lead to a greater understanding of who we are and what we
need. It might be one kind of yoga one day and another kind another day. It
might be practicing one style more, one style less. It might mean adding Qi
Gong. It might be practicing at a different time of day or making subtle
modifications to what you've been doing the same way for decades. Only by
trying new things can we know what best serves us and helps us grow.
I believe a daily yoga practice is
important—whether it is a Sunday morning home practice of Yin with your partner
combined with six days a week of more Yang yoga at your favorite studio or yoga
in the woods with your family every morning with a periodic visit to the
studio. It doesn’t matter what yoga you do, it’s that you do it. In expanding
my own vision of what yoga is good yoga, I have been able to commit more deeply
to my own yoga practice. I invite you to do the same. Try something you haven’t
tried. Challenge your body and your mind in new ways. Be a beginner again. Practice
some good yoga everyday.
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