I have decided to start doing Bikram Yoga. This is the yoga performed in a heated room (around 38 degrees C). As I have heard the changes whilst performing this yoga are quite profound, both physically and energetically, I have decided to document my progress and the changes that I experience in my body and life.
Going along to my first class I did not know what to expect. I had done yoga before off and on. A 10 week course whilst at uni and then a few classes here and there. So I knew a bit about the poses and the general tone of a yoga class. Getting into the heated room and lying down on my mat felt similar to a steam room, although not nearly as steamy and wet. However it was a wet, humid heat. I love this feeling. There is nothing better than a steam room after a workout.
So the class started with a breathing exercise. Half way through this and I can feel the sweat starting to run and we haven't even started moving yet! A the class progressed, the sweat really started to pour. Each Bikram Yoga class follows a series of excercises that run in the same sequence each time. There is always a focus during each excercise - breathing and form, so I found there was little time for my mind to wander. At one stage when the sweat was literally pouring off me and dripping onto my towel, I though when is this going to end?
Then savasna - the dead body's pose. In this pose you lie on you back, completely relaxed as if you where a dead body. Rest! Then we started the floor exercises. By the end of the class the instructor (who commentates thorughout the whole class) was saying how we had just worked every ligament, muscle, tendon, and cell in our bodies. Is that why I was feeling so.....worked!
As I got into my car my clothes where completly saturated as if I had been standing in the pouring rain. Except it wasn't rain it was sweat, and I felt great! Like I was walking a a cloud. So relaxed that I felt a bit wobbly almost like I had no strength. But I did. My mind felt like I had a glass or two of champagne, like when the bubbles give you this sense of a high, but felt completely clear and sharp at the same time. Wonderful. A natural yoga high. This feeling lasted lasted for the rest of the night (I went to an afternoon class) and I slept like a baby.
