First Time Yogi's One Saving Grace - The Breath
You have decided to start doing yoga and you choose a Bikram's class. The heat is intimidating and you are concerned about being inflexible. Should I be here?
Absolutely!!! You are in the perfect place; the safest place to become healthy. Your muscles are safe in the warm, humid environment; you have trained teachers guiding every move you make; and last but not least, you have your breath. We are told to meditate, but the ants in our pants and the busyness of our minds strengthen our ego and push us farther away from one of the most grounding techniques known to man. THE BREATH.
They say, in Bikram's, that if you are thinking about anything else but your breath you are not working hard enough. I can vouch for this; for when I come out of a posture and my heart is pounding out of my chest, all I think about is slowing my heart rate, keeping my mouth close and lifting my stomach up and down with each breath. I know that when I am focused on the heat and dreading the next posture that I am certainly not concentrating on the one thing that can ease my panic... the breath.
Absolutely!!! You are in the perfect place; the safest place to become healthy. Your muscles are safe in the warm, humid environment; you have trained teachers guiding every move you make; and last but not least, you have your breath. We are told to meditate, but the ants in our pants and the busyness of our minds strengthen our ego and push us farther away from one of the most grounding techniques known to man. THE BREATH.
They say, in Bikram's, that if you are thinking about anything else but your breath you are not working hard enough. I can vouch for this; for when I come out of a posture and my heart is pounding out of my chest, all I think about is slowing my heart rate, keeping my mouth close and lifting my stomach up and down with each breath. I know that when I am focused on the heat and dreading the next posture that I am certainly not concentrating on the one thing that can ease my panic... the breath.
Comments