Namaste

I am a relatively new (one and a half years) Bikram student. I started off just going a few times a week, and it was incredibly hard. I would skip class for months at a time and when I attended I would go every other day or so. About three months ago I decided i was going to use Bikram to change my life. Four years ago I had a car accident in which I fractured my c1, broke all the ribs in my left side, collapsed a lung, had my spleen removed, broke all the metatarsals in my right foot, broke my left scapula, died twice and spent three weeks in the ICU. The accident in addition to never having been athletic to begin with and not taking care of my self left me in pretty bad shape mentally and physically. I am now thirty one, and feel better than I ever have in my entire life.

When I went to classes irregularly the heat killed me, and I never saw any real improvement in my postures or the way I felt. The weight loss was the only real result I found, but wen I stopped going to class the weight just came back. One day I attended the ten am class after a few months of not going, and I decided to come back to do the six pm as well. That moment was the moment my whole life changed. After my first double I decided to set a goal of doubles every day for ten days. On my third day I forgot the second class was at four not six, so I only completed nineteen of the twenty classes in the ten days, but that challenge changed everything.

For the year or so I had attended Bikram off and on before that I had never really talked to anyone in my classes or the instructors. Once I began the challenge I began to enjoy the classes, and the people in them. I now know many people who I am glad to see and talk to each day.

During my first ten day challenge I decided that teaching Bikram yoga was something I wanted to pursue. In ten days I lost fifteen pounds, I would say my over all body pains have been reduced by 95% and my energy level has sky rocketed. The truly amazing change is emotional and mental. Everything I ever got upset about suddenly became inconsequential. For the first time in my life i felt calm, in control, and at peace. I started eating better, I stopped drinking alcohol almost entirely. I do not drink caffeine or soda, and I drink about two gallons of water a day. All of the changes in my behavior were almost unintentional, I simply did not want to do anything that would interfere with or would not enrich my yoga experience. Every class I had a break through in at least one posture. In ten days I progressed more than I had previously in over a year.

Since the fist challenge I have been attending about four to five classes a week and a double here or there. I am a student and frankly I just cannot get to enough of the classes to practice as much as I would like. This past Monday I started a new challenge forty classes in thirty days... After this six pm class I will have thirty six more classes to take before June third.

I am excited to see my progress in the next month and to see if I can exceed my goal. I am writing this blog to keep you updated on this journey and to inspire others to start their own.