There's been a lot of negativity about Bikram yoga in the press lately, but most of it has to do with the man himself, rather than the practice of Hatha Yoga. What bothers me is how people start confusing the two together; and either ridicule or put down Bikram yoga as if overnight the therapeutic benefits have been replaced by a hype of too strict postures in a overheated room that will harm people. Each style of yoga has their own discipline and set of rules, so why is Bikram yoga any less than Vinyasa or Ashtanga. I love this article, as it brings it back to why it is the way it is, and the importance of staying true to the individual practice.
Each style of yoga have their own advantages and strengths, some are to build heat through fast moving flows that invigorate the body, others a slow meditative length holds to relax and get deeper into stretches. Bikram yoga focuses on alignment and using the step by step instructions to heal what's broken. In class we often tell students:
'The object is not the subject, the object is your body.
When you improve your body, then you can do the postures'.
When you improve your body, then you can do the postures'.
Students often ask why we repeat the same sequence over and over, and it's quite simple:
... Firstly, how are you ever going to master it. It would be a bit like learning the play the piano one week,
the following week the guitar and the next the violin - you're never going to master any instrument!...
... The reason why you will never master anything if you continually chop'n'change,
is because your will never move away from the inward mindset of learning the fundamentals.
You will never get to that point where you are able to let go,
letting your body & mind flow as one, connected, in tune...
I come from a background of chronic illness and body problems, and I have tried other types of yoga and body therapy. For myself, Bikram yoga works the best. It gives me time to repeat the postures so that I get another chance to focus on the alignment, then over time achieve depth, as well as the calming and relaxing mindset I practice during class. Now that I am pregnant it has helped with with swelling, headaches, muscle soreness and other symptoms I am going through.
If I had a different body, one that didn't suffer from all these problems, then I might have chosen another discipline of yoga, but it's the defining factors of Bikram yoga, the repetitive postures, the step by step instructions, the strict discipline of doing everything right and the heat that has helped me the most. I am no longer on disability, I don't take any medication, and most of all I enjoying living life and being normal, which is something I didn't have for almost 10 years prior to discovering this yoga.
Therefore to me, what matters is not what the media portrays Bikram yoga to be, or those who dislike the practice and try to convince others why they shouldn't try it, instead it's about finding a healing modality that works, understanding why it's done the way it is, and practicing it the way it is to get the most of of my life, and my body.
