Love at first SWEAT...

Tomorrow it is April. I am in the home stretch. I still can’t believe this dream of mine is about to become a reality. To think that it all started with one 90 minute yoga class….

I think back to my first Bikram Yoga class, and the fact that it is as clear as it was yesterday is a pretty powerful thing. I brought one of my friends that I worked with, Laura, to the studio. We walked in together, and the first person I see is the instructor, Linda. The woman had the strongest, tightest body I had ever seen in my life, and in my head, I thought, “OK… if this is going to make me look like THAT, I’m in!” She gave us the low-down about class, and just said, “It’s hot in there, but I can’t watch you if you leave the room, so just stay in the room even if you have to lie down. Join us when you can.” It didn’t seem so scary.

So we walked into the hot room, put down our mats, and looked at each other with crinkled noses. Ummm… it stunk in there. And it was HOT!

The lights come on, teacher comes in, and Laura and I were pointed out as the newbies and told to just look at the people around us if we were lost. Class began. I actually can’t specifically remember the class itself. That part of it is kind of a blur. I remember looking at the students around me thinking that they must have been doing this for years. I remember feeling insanely challenged. My heart was thumping out of my chest, and I wanted to RUN out of that room. But at the same time, I wanted to stay in there and get thru it and stay with the postures to the best of my ability. When the class was finally over, I was sopping in sweat and couldn’t wait to come back as soon as my schedule would allow.

And so I did. I took advantage of the 2-week introductory special and went to yoga class about 8 times in those 2 weeks. I didn’t become a “die-hard” right away. I was working about 60 – 70 hours a week at a start-up company, and that was the priority in my life. My health, my marriage came second. I had a warped sense of what was important. Everything was sort of off-balance. Things at home didn’t feel good, I didn’t feel good. I didn’t know up from down, and don’t know if I even cared to find out.

At some point in the middle of this depression I was feeling, I dove into my yoga practice. I began feeling good about myself again. I started wanting to fix the problems I was having in my life. I felt good. And healthy. I felt a shift in my life. Everything started to rebalance. I realized that the work would be there tomorrow, and that if I wasn’t feeling good, I wasn’t giving 100%. I saw myself make the decision to work harder at my marriage. And with that decision, it suddenly wasn’t hard anymore.

Yoga was the conduit for me to fix my life. It made ME the priority of my life. Without me… without a happy me, I don’t have much. This is why I believe so strongly in Bikram Yoga. It changed my life. I’ve seen the power of it. More than anything, I want to be able to bring it to others. I want to inspire people in the way that I have been inspired. I think there is so much more in me that I have yet to find. This 9 week journey is going to test me in ways I can’t imagine, I am sure. But the amazing thing is – I have seen firsthand how powerful it can be… and this is just the beginning.