Bikram Yoga

My experiences with 26 postures in a hot room.

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Location: London, Greater London, United Kingdom

I'm a mathematician, software designer, online activist and social entrepreneur.

Monday, March 06, 2006

The Greatest Transformational Technique

Bikram Yoga has become for me the greatest transformational technique I have come across. By repeating the same set of 26 exercises every time, but in a hot room, I have managed to reach what no other therapy has touched: the chronic pains caused by an accident that traumatised my spine and dislocated my hip.

Balancing strength and flexibility while exerting yourself in the heat means uniting mind, body and spirit in a way that differs radically from everything I've done so far in terms of healing mental, emotional and spiritual splits.

For weeks I used to cry remembering ancient pains and experiences related to the accident that caused me to leave my highly paid and taxfree job at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. For months I used to go nearly compulsively virtually every day, because I was fascinated by watching my progress from class to class and in between: when walking and getting dressed, when turning in bed and going up and down stairs, when expecting pain and feeling different sensations instead.

I have relived agonies and hours of painfree existence. I have remembered the doctors who told me that my pain was psychological and the driver who had fallen asleep at the time and who ignored my letters and emails 20 years later.

And I keep watching my breath, no matter how hot the room, no matter how hard the exercise, no matter where I am between the standing and the balancing poses. For as long as I breathe, I am alive. But there are many ways of being alive. Bikram Yoga enables you to be alive YOUR way!

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