Bikram Yoga

2008-12-05T10:19:00.000-08:00

I have now transferred this blog to Wordpress because I'm more familiar with that platform and love its 'tagging magic' besides fascinating access to statistics about how people found you and your blog.

So updates of my story can be found on http://bikramyogastory.wordpress.com

2008-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Michele

For weeks I've had a huge bunch of giant white chrysanthemums in my head as an expression of THANK YOU for your courage, commitment and perseverance to get Bikram Yoga established in London. Every class is a pleasure and privilege on my journey towards eventually recovering the kind of body I had when that accident happened. I am confident that I'll get there for Bikram heals what nothing else can reach!

All the various trainers have left their imprints on my experience: you with adjusting my standing head to knee pose and watching the most fascinating spot on the carpet - besides pointing out that anybody who does Bikram must be a bit crazy... One other practitioner said: it's for people who like challenges!

My first trainer was Anna which means she can best comment on how my body has changed. Since she stretched my back in half tortoise the other day, I turned her into my "Bikram angel". Rachel's dialogue always feels like champagne to me. And most recently she seems to lecture just for me: everything to do with ALIGNMENT.

First I got rid of my chronic pain which was replaced by occasional discomfort. Then I gained functionality, and now I'm realigning my body big time. Completely fascinating how that has become so much more important than ever before. Already I feel slimmer, fitter, stronger and more flexible. Every time I come out of class, my left leg seems to feel better when I walk with renewed energy.

Emma and Rachel gave me my after-class exercises. Adrian taught me not only to smile to my shins (and on other occasions), but also to use the awkward pose to make my left leg stronger.

Given my extensive experiences with psychotherapy and healing, I love Sanjai's way of teaching with emphasis on awareness and joy. In fact, the other day I really felt the deliciousness of the practice and expect "deliriousness" next!...

So, while I continue to be most curious when the day will come that I can honestly say that my left knee doesn't crunch any more and my left hip is as 'good' as my right one, I shall keep coming and shall continue even after that!

Meanwhile, I remain yours gratefully for ever,
Sabine

2008-08-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

35 Years after the accident

3.5 years after starting with Bikram Yoga and I KNOW I shall feel like I felt when I was 29 and it happened... My left hip and knee have made such progress! My spine is bendable again! I am virtually pain free and while regaining more and more functionality and flexibility, the real challenge is re-aligning my right and left side.

I am committed to Bikram Yoga until the end of my life. It energises me to do my work which is my life: the professional aspect is on 3D Metrics and the social aspect is on In the Spirit of the Forum for Stable Currencies.

From that followed the online petition Stop the Cash Crumble to Equalize the Credit Crunch.

2008-04-05T01:44:00.000-07:00

It's long overdue that I hail the effects that my commitment and perseverance to Bikram Yoga have brought about. It's also interesting to compare my body feelings between being in London where Yoga is my only 'sport' and Brandenburg where I walk in the wonderful fields and woods to try my latest feelings of knees, legs, hips and back.

Of course, when I experience my body in bed, it doesn't matter where I am. The best is, of course, that chronic pain has changed into occasional discomfort. The real challenge is now to get the full functionality back of the left knee and hip. And thus I shall continue to experience my body in those 26 postures, marvelling most gratefully at the miracle I have been experiencing.

And learning to smile more and more often!

2007-05-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today I practised for the 300th time - in 2 years and 2 months.

Why do I keep doing it?

Because the energy with which I move has changed. Because the confidence with which I move had multiplied. Because the joy with which I experience my pain-ridden body continues to increase and grow - from class to class to class.

One would have to call it magic if it wasn't completely for real!

2007-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

Comparing Legs

I don't go for walks any more: I go to compare legs. For the progress I'm making continues in subtle and strong ways. It moves up and down between leg and hip, across bum and back and keeps catching my attention.

Also, my overall energy is wonderful: get up and go. Do it. I feel ELASTIC - not just strong and flexible as is promoted in Bikram classes.

And thus my inner odyssey continues as my outer progress unfolds.

Long live Yoga in hot rooms!

2006-10-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

Addicted to Bikram Yoga

It is incredible how keen I am to attend these classes that have these far reaching and deeply changing effects. Turning in bed, getting out of bed, getting dressed, walking stairs up and down - all these regular movements keep feeling differently. Where there used to be pain and discomfort, there is now a different kind of sensation.

I walk with strength and confidence and watch how I keep wanting to try my 'walking feeling' out. I just wish that my sleeping would improve, too. But that will come in its time, too.

So I keep going 3-4 times a week and thoroughly enjoy it, especially when I get feedback from trainers who can see my progress while I feel it.

One woman who is coming because I was the first of three friends who told her about it told me the other day that her fibroids have become smaller after 20 sessions.

Every body gets what it needs from that 'infusion of change' through exercise and heat.

Am I glad my body takes what it can get from it!!!

2006-09-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

After 250 Classes

First of all, my spine feels flexible and 'one piece' instead of brittle and inflexible.

Secondly, my hip and knee continue to make the subtle progress and changes that come from this gradual re-adjustment and re-alignment on a cellular level.

Thirdly, I've lost that extra weight and I feel my body getting back to how it was when the accident happened 33 years ago, when I was 29.

This 'therapeutic fitness training' has changed my metabolism because my body has learned to sweat, my 'yoga face' because I've learned to enjoy suffering in a physical way - after crying for weeks over all the emotional suffering associated with this accident.

And I've become addicted to watching my progress: within each class from posture to posture, between classes when I expect pain but watch how my leg / hip ' back feel differently and in my overall feeling of embracing life with a body that is renewing itself - as its response to being 'wound up' during 26 postures in a hot room.

What an experience to share!

2006-09-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

Between Experiences of Pleasure and Memories of Pain

It is rather difficult to convey the amazement that I experience every time I get dressed/undressed, I turn in bed, walk, sit down, go up and down stairs: all these normal and regular movements feel quite DIFFERENTLY after nearly 18 months of classes.

But it is easy to describe the joy that I feel every time I walk away from a class now: I used to envy the young people who seem to feel more energetic whereas I was exhausted for months - emotionally and physically. But for quite some time, I have been feeling happier and happier, during and after class.

I have lost my diamond ring in the studio, but I have found my joie de vivre in my BODY, not just in my spirit! And I am confident that I will feel the way I used to when the accident happened 33 years ago. I will also ski again - like at 28.

Reversing ageing is nothing compared to my experience of turning chronic pain into joy and pleasure. Sanjai even managed to get me to enjoy the Camel posture which is so hard and difficult for me. But now I smile just thinking of this new way of going only as far as my body ENJOYS leaning back!...

2006-07-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

Progress

The changes that I'm watching during a class and between classes must be called 'dramatic'. During class: at first I could fold my left knee, then I could sit Japanese style. And now I keep watching how my bum will touch the floor in 'fixed firm pose' while my left hip is still hurting most in the wind removing pose.

But the essence is to keep going: in between classes I walk as if I'm normal, I'm putting my weight expressly on my left leg which I haven't donw for 33 years and thus keep watching how I'm changing, changing, changing - while also staying the same in a funny way...

2006-06-30T00:21:00.000-07:00

Having started Bikram Yoga in March 2005, it's now well over a year that I've enjoyed my progress. In ordinary walking terms, I can say my hip is 95% healed. During Bikram exercises I'm maybe at 70%.

But yesterday I was very surprised at noticing how the heat which normally exhausts me affected me much less! Normally, I would lie down during a number of exerices - depending on the redness of my face that seems to be a measure for the degree of exhaustion I experience. But yesterday, while being red-faced, I could do more exercises than I've done for a long time - but at 42 degrees!

39 degrees feels 'cool' in comparison. But I came out jumping inside - full of renewed energy - even though I had to cry again over my hurtful hip... But the beauty of crying is that it stops. And the beauty of this magical Bikram process is that it gives you what you need at any given time. Since I cannot really know what that is, I keep being surprised: at the exercises I can do better and better during the class and the way I carry myself in the real world.

Yesterday I was at an exhibition all day long - without experiencing ANY back pain at all, whereas I used not to be able to stand for one minute without my back hurting!

I used not to be able to bend backwards whereas I now adore trying to reach the back wall! And thus I sing a Yoga song of Bikram praise - or as delight-ful trainer Gaby would say: my cells are singing with happiness!

2006-03-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

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!