Keeping my options open

Happy 1 year of Bikram to me!

Yesterday was my 248^th Bikram yoga class and my 1 year Bikramversary! That’s right, instead of drinking mass quantities of green beer and hard liquor, I have spent the last two Saint Patrick’s days doing yoga. Let me tell you, it feels a hell-of-a-lot better than drinking all day, and then wasting the following day with a lovely hangover and a head full of regrets {“I will never drink again”}. I guess I’ve officially grown up, or at least started to…

Yesterday’s class kicked my ass. A visiting teacher from down south taught. She was very motivating, and added a new twist to my typical class. We don’t get much variety in our studio with our typical two teachers [not that I don’t still love them]. She really talked about the breathing, and broke postures down in new ways that I hadn’t heard before. It was evident that she has been teaching a while, and that she knows how to push her student. She didn’t know my name, so she called me Miss Pink [good ol’ pink sports bra]. She pushed me HARD, and had me go farther into some postures that I had been holding back on, which killed me, but I appreciated it. It was hot and I was SO sweaty, and it felt SO good. I love the heat now, even today when some other women were complaining about the heat after class; I hadn’t even thought it was that hot, I was just happy that it was hot and that I was sweaty. After class yesterday, the visiting teacher asked my name, and told me I have a beautiful practice, which was certainly nice to hear.

I had a conversation with my studio owner on Thursday night after class. He knows how frustrated I am about my inability to go to Birkam Teacher Training, and began talking about other yoga teacher trainings. With everything going on with Bikram and trying to charge franchising fees for Bikram yoga certified studios, my studio directors aren’t sure what they will have to do, and if they will have to eventually drop the “Birkam” name off of their studio. With that being said, he mentioned the possibility of me going to another “hot yoga” teacher training. Although I really want to go to Bikram Teacher Training, I also understand where he is coming from; he said that often the people who leave training aren’t well prepared to actually teach, and that a lot has changed from when he originally trained 11 years ago. He sent me a list of other teacher trainings, and after looking at them, one stood out in particular. It is called Absolute Hot Yoga teacher training and takes place in Thailand in the month of June. It was created by teachers who originally were trained in Bikram yoga. I would rather not stray from Bikram’s 26 postures, but this training consists of 50 postures – it looks like almost {if not all} of the 26 Bikram postures are included, but with a few extras. You still practice twice daily, but the number of students is much lower than Bikram teacher training. They put a real emphasis on how to teach and the business of yoga.

So, keeping all of this in mind; the fact that I wouldn’t have to miss any work for this training, and I would still have half of my summer after training before having to go back to work, it is a real possibility. I am going to apply for my passport, because I might as well have one [hopefully I will get out of the country some point in the next 10 years].

My puppy dog

It would be a great experience, and I could start this adventure into teaching sooner than later. Then, maybe later on, I could always attend Bikram Teacher Trainig when the time was right.

Here’s hoping; I need an adventure! Thailand would certainly be an adventure. I never travel. The farthest I have ever traveled from California in my life has been to New York (6 years ago), Florida (15 years ago), and the Bahamas (16 years ago). In the last 5 years I haven’t left California. So this would be a pretty fantastic experience and opportunity.

I’m trying to keep an open mind; there are other opportunities out there!

Namaste