Several weeks ago I finally heeded the call of the instructors to breathe throughout the entire series of poses and what a difference! With greater ease I now go deeper into every pose than ever before. I have been practicing Bikram Yoga since March and I can say that breathing throughout the class, as simple as it sounds, has improved my practice, and life, dramatically.

‘You have the pose, you have the breathe and then you have the yoga’. This philosophy has also spread into my daily living and has helped improved my patience for solving and dissolving stressful situations.

‘I breathe in, and I am the flower. I breathe out, and I have its freshness.’

Zen meditation

Happy holidays,

Chris

Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life itself reveals again and again the opposite: that letting go is the path to real freedom.

Just as when the waves lash at the shore, the rocks suffer no damage but are sculpted and eroded into beautiful shapes, so our character can be moulded and our rough edges worn smooth by changes.

Through weathering changes we can learn how to develop a gentle but unshakable composure.

Our confidence in ourselves grows, and becomes so much greater that goodness and compassion begin naturally to radiate out from us and bring joy to others.

That goodness is what survives death, a fundamental goodness that is in every one of us. The whole of our life is a teaching of how to uncover that strong goodness, and a training towards realizing it.

- Excerpt from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying By Sogyal Rinpoche

The Holiday Season brings joy, beauty and hopefully offers more time to stay indoors with family. For many of us it also means some discomfort as many bodies react to cold in an unpleasant way. The reasons behind our winter-aches could be an old injury, but most of the time it is the simple contraction of the muscles as soon as the body meets low temperatures. When you step out of the door, notice how your body shrinks into a different position right away. We squeeze at the neck and shoulders, the elbows close on the torso, the posture becomes tense and hinged.

So first of all, make sure you are dressed warmly enough. Especially cover the lower back, override the desire to wear low cut jeans with your belly naked, wear jackets that protect your torso down to the hip at least. As we lose most of our body heat through the skin of the head, cover your head even if you don’t feel cold on the top of your head.

Also, be aware of your bodies reaction to cold and as you step into the cold “send a note” to your muscles from your mind: “I will be back to warm again soon” and consciously relax your muscles. Drop your shoulders, open the elbows and if dressed warm enough your body will be happier to adept to the Holiday Season as well.

“One of the greatest gifts I have experienced by practising Bikram Yoga in the heat, is as my body got used to handle the heat, it became more adaptable to cold as well. Somehow extremities of weather don’t affect my body that much anymore. I guess our inner thermometer can be trained as well!”

We are so pleased to announce the safe arrival of Jude Thomas Dowd on Monday, December 7 at 2am. Mama Corinne and Pappa Tom are overjoyed (and very tired!)

Congratulations from all of us at Bikram Yoga Guelph!

When and where did you complete the teacher training?
Fall 2002 Los Angeles, Beverly Hills

How or why did you start practising Bikram Yoga?
I was studying architecture at that time and looking for something to balance this demanding lifestyle.

How was your very first Bikram class?
Hard but exhilarating. That was back in 1997. The teacher would not leave me alone. He kept at me. The teacher was great. He opened the first Bikram Yoga College of India in Canada at Bloor and Spadina in Toronto. Thank you Sasha!

What is your most important advice for the students?
Keep up your practice. Look at the big picture. Both in life and yoga.

What did you want to be as a child when you grow up?
An architect.

What would you do if you didn’t teach yoga?
Design and build stuff.

What is your favourite quote?
“Don’t ever let school interfere with your education.”

Which one is your least favourite pose in the series?
Standing bow. – balance in still my greatest challenge.

What are you most proud of in your life?
That I continually move forward and welcome new experiences and people into my life.

What is your first thought in the morning?
What will today be like.

What do you treasure the most?
New experiences and challenges which keep life vital and interesting.

Tell us about your first kiss.
As it turns out girls lips don’t taste like strawberries!

Jeff will be our guest instructor over the holidays. Please check the schedule for his class times.

When and where did you complete the teacher training?
I completed teacher training at Palm Desert in 2009 with my good friend Orsi, who is currently teaching at Bikram Guelph.

How or why did you start practicing Bikram Yoga?
A former girlfriend brought me to my first class.

How was your very first Bikram class?
It was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life, if the instructor hadn’t been reassuring the new students that the nausea we were experiencing was completely normal I likely would have got up and left.

What is your most important advice for the students?
breathe, nice steady breaths

What did you want to be as a child when you grow up?
I’ve never thought that far ahead.

What would you do if you didn’t teach yoga?
Start the Revolution!

What is your favourite quote?
“I don’t want to be part of any revolution that doesn’t have dancing!”

Which one is your least favourite pose in the series?
Half Tortoise – I don’t feel anything happening.

What are you most proud of in your life?
My ability to grow, change, and adjust.

What is your first thought in the morning?
Starbucks, I love those guys.

What do you treasure the most?
Opportunity.

Tell us about your first kiss.
I was walking a girl home (we liked each other), she ran ahead and – I think – pretended to fall down. When I caught up to check on her, she totally jumped me. I had no idea what I was doing so I just stuck my tongue as far into her mouth as possible and hoped for the best.

When and where did you complete the teacher training?
Fall 2008 Acapulco. We had a beautiful location, but humidity from hell. One day it was recorded as 97% humidity in the hot room.

How or why did you start practising Bikram Yoga?
I had knee problems all my life and suffered from severe shin splint pain at the time. I was advised to give this form of yoga a shot so I did

How was your very first Bikram class?
Tough. I was that inflexible, the teacher had to come up to me and help me grab my feet in (floor) bow. They had to help me for the first month or so

What is your most important advice for the students?
Relax. Breathe. Once you master the breath, you will start to master the yoga.

What did you want to be as a child when you grow up?
A Pilot

What would you do if you didn’t teach yoga?
I would go back into IT.

What is your favourite quote?
It is from Bikram, but it is unprintable. So, here is something I live by that I created: “If you look at the world simply, the world will look simply back at you.”

Which one is your least favourite pose in the series?
I love them all. Each one challenges me in a different way. Even when I struggle and maybe hate it, I start to love it more.

What are you most proud of in your life?
My Bikram Teaching Certificate. It sits in my living room in a frame next to the water bottle that got me through training.

What is your first thought in the morning?
No. No. No. No. No. No.

What do you treasure the most?
People will say my iPhone. I would say a 1KG bar of Cadbury Chocolate!

Tell us about your first kiss.
I was 5. Her name was Doreen May, and it was love!

I love you for what you are
but I love you yet more for what you are going to be.
I love you not so much for you realities,
as for your ideas
I pray for your desires that they may be great,
rather than your satisfactions
which may be so hazardously little.
A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall.
the most beautiful rose is one hardly more than a bud.
Where in the pangs and ecstasies of desire
are working for a larger and finer growth.
Not always shall you be what you are now.
You are going forward toward something great.
I am on the way with you and therefore I love you.

Carl Sandburg