Whoa! Calm down. I know the title seems smug, but let me explain.<\/p>\n
I began practicing Bikram yoga<\/a> about 4 years ago. Ridding myself of toxins by sweating like crazy and obtaining enormous gains in flexibility really appealed to me, or, uh, my ego, actually, so I signed up and practiced regularly. After the first few classes, even with many different instructors, a continuous theme started revealing itself to me. The no bullshit, no excuses, no hesitating attitude began to envelope me, and I fell in love with Bikram yoga, even though I barely made it through the first class without bolting from the 42-degree room. In fact, I barely made it through my first two weeks. Dizziness and nausea followed me everywhere, but yet I kept going, falling deeper and deeper in love. Weird? I know. To be that excited about something that was making me ill seems silly, doesn’t it? But somehow I knew I needed to continue. Bikram yoga was opening my eyes to a problem I let lay dormant for so long I nearly forgot about it. Extremely low blood pressure, difficulty balancing electrolytes, and a pretty severe aversion to any extreme temperature have been issues of mine since early childhood. There was a sense that if I just kept going, it would all work itself out. And it did. Well mostly. Until I started training again… I\u2019m a cyclist. Well, I ride a mountain bike everywhere. I ride to work, I ride to mountain biking rides, I ride to parties, I ride to the climbing gym, and I ride to yoga classes<\/a>. I am an athlete, and this is where the problem lies. Bikram is a beautiful, effective practice and art. So beautiful in fact, that I couldn’t continue my usual activities while doing it. The 90 minutes I was spending in the studio were literally all my body could tolerate for the day, sometimes 2 or 3 days. Listening and being highly in tune with my body is a skill I developed over 25 years of dance training. My body was without a doubt saying, Stop. It was shutting down. There were days I couldn’t make it up the stairs without needing a break. Waking up in the hospital and learning I passed out and the ambulance came to rescue me was my breaking point. I either had to pick Bikram yoga or mountain biking, but I couldn’t do both. Bikram yoga got canned, but my body began to ache from the lack of stretching.<\/p>\n While researching Ashtanga yoga retreats<\/a> for my website, I began to learn a little bit about this other hardcore type of yoga<\/a>. Then I began to try it and experience it. Sadly, there is no official Ashtanga yoga instructor in my home town or anywhere within a 3-hour commute. You see, it\u2019s very difficult to obtain an authentic Ashtanga yoga teaching certificate compared to other styles of yoga, so that means there are significantly fewer teachers. So I ordered some DVDs, and I committed myself. Ashtanga yoga is no easy task. I was exhausted after the first few times trying it, but slowly my body became accustomed to it, so I could push a little bit harder, and slowly I got a little bit stronger each week. Note: NOT each practice<\/strong>. The progress is slow and steady, measured over months and years rather than days and weeks. My body has responded to this in such a way that I now feel stronger and healthier physically, emotionally, mentally, and somewhat spiritually.<\/p>\n