Springtime is the season to freshen up! Likewise the body has its own way of “cleaning house” during spring, and as a result many people experience allergies or springtime colds during this season. Hot Yoga is a great tool to help the body detox. Through perspiration , drinking fresh and clean water, before, during and after yoga class, we help our cells to replenish and renew, in complete tune with Nature.

Cleaning your yoga mat:

It is recommended cleaning your yoga mat about every other week to keep it sticky (in a good way).
For light cleaning, mix one part water with three parts mild soap in a spray bottle. Spray the mat, and wipe it dry with a soft cloth or towel. Here in the studio we add tee tree oil to this mix because it is the best natural disinfectant. You can do that at home as well. You only need 3-5 drops of the oil into a 200ml spray bottle.
If your mat is heavily soiled, fill the bathtub with cool water and add a drop of mild soap. Scrub with a soft cloth, soak for a half-hour, and scrub again. Rinse thoroughly. Place the mat on a dry towel, and roll them both up, jelly roll–like (so the mat is inside), to squeeze out excess water. Unroll mat, and hang up to dry.

This offer is valid for First Timers only. There is no need to pre-register, just come in early for your first class.

Please take a moment to read the information on our First Timer’s page

How or why did you start practising Bikram Yoga?
I was looking for something new. I tried tap, swimming, spinning, and more. Nothing really gave me the “thing” that I wanted. A friend told me to go to Bikram Yoga. I said, why not!? I tried and fell in love.

How was your very first Bikram class?
Horrible! I wore long pants and long sleeved T-shirt. It was very uncomfortable. I didn’t understand anything. It was like the teacher spoke in a weird language. I was in shock. When I saw my body in the mirror I didn’t want to accept me. It was hard. But after the class I felt so good! I felt full of energy! I bought a one year pass immediately and started to practice every day.

What is your most important advice for the students?
Keep trying. Trust in yourself and NEVER EVER give up.

What did you want to be as a child when you grow up?
Veterinary. In fact I spent a year studying for this career. I had the heart to care for animals, just not the stomach.

What would you do if you didn’t teach yoga?
All my life I wanted to be a professional ballroom dancer but I have not taken a single dance lesson yet. I am a graphic designer. Before becoming a Bikram Teacher I worked in my country Chile designing toys for children. I loved the work. So, if there was no Bikram there would be design.

What is your favourite quote?
You’re never too old, never too late, never to sick, to start all over again

Which one is your least favourite pose in the series?
Standing Separate Leg head to knee pose.

What are you most proud of in your life?
Risking everything in my life: Giving up my job, my car, my life and with no knowledge of English going to Teacher Training. My family said, “Carmen, you are crazy!” and I said yes mom…I don’t speak a word in English…but I WANT to be a Bikram Yoga teacher

What is your first thought in the morning?
Diet coke with ice. No matter what time of the year it is

What do you treasure the most?
My nephew Clemente and niece Martina

Tell us about your first kiss.
I was 13 years old….this guy asked me if I wanted to be his girlfriend. We stretched our mouths and did a little funny kiss

“The heart is a muscular organ found in all vertebrates that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions. The term cardiac (as in cardiology) means “related to the heart” and comes from the Greek καρδιά, kardia, for “heart.”” Encyclopedia-

The heart as an organ, being a type of muscle basically is trainable, adjustable, and improvable, just like your biceps or hamstrings. Many of the yoga poses are directed to stretch the muscles of the heart. Including Balancing Stick (Tuladandasana) and Half tortoise pose ( Ardha-Kurmasana) in Bikram’s series of the 26 hatha yoga postures.

It is incredible how one big step forward; rotating on your hip, stretching forward and kicking your leg back can actually raise your heartbeat and provide a perfect cardiovascular exercise. Practising “balancing stick” pose raises your heartbeat as much as running does.

The heart is also a symbol, and if we look at it as the symbol of emotions, its health deserves even more attention.

“All practises of yoga, including meditation, breathing techniques, ethics, postures, and devotional practices bring the practitioner into contact with the core of the heart. Along this path of the heart one is sure to find obstacles. One cannot work with the body without also working with the mind, because when we work with the symptoms of discontent, we begin to see that physiology and psychology are inseparable. “

Namaste.

How or why did you start practising Bikram Yoga?
I had been practicing yoga for years but my practice needed direction, I definitely found it in the Bikram Series.

How was your very first Bikram class?
It was intense but I knew it was the real deal.

What is your most important advice for the students?
Something my favorite teacher said ‘when you judge yourself you only break your own heart’ so just breath.

What did you want to be as a child when you grow up?
I never wanted to grow up.

What would you do if you didn’t teach yoga?
I work the summer as forest fire fighter.

What is your favourite quote?
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.- Einstein

Which one is your least favourite pose in the series?
Standing Head to Knee- locking the knee is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

What are you most proud of in your life?
My dog.

What is your first thought in the morning?
I hope it snowed last night.

What do you treasure the most?
Freedom.

Tell us about your first kiss.
It was scary and awkward but continuously got better and better. Not unlike yoga!

‘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

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

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!”

Congratulations from all of us at Bikram Yoga Guelph!

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!