It’s Orange!

Hi All!

Our studio was painted yesterday morning. I saw the test paint the other day and was skeptical. Orange? Really? They were taking away the pale yellow walls and changing to orange. Turns out, it actually looks great! And honestly, once class starts, it’s the last thing I’m looking at anyway. Next up...New carpet!

Not enough words to express how good class felt last night. The awesome Miss Mimi taught the 6:30, it's one of the classes I look forward to all week. Perfect way to end a busy Monday.

The room’s getting more and more crowded each week. Cooler dark weather is driving them inside. Last night we had to be at near capacity which is I think around 62. That’s a lot of bodies in a hot humid studio! I know I have said mat to mat before, but really guys, last night mats and towels were touching. People were walking in with their mats at 6:20 and just kind of had that dear caught in the headlights look. People were pretty good about shifting around to squeeze everyone in. The whole back row was lined with new comers with nervous looks on their faces. Good to see them but sitting on my mat up front I’m thinking “Uh oh this is going to be a really tough first class for them!” Might even scare them away.

We were sweating right after breathing. Oh yeah, it’s going to be that kind of class. Due to the massive amount of bodies in the room hot is kind of an understatement. Fine with me though. The heat just makes me more determined and focused. When it’s too cool I my mind wanders and starts saying “it needs to be hotter.”

Mimi comments a lot during class. All good stuff. One thing stuck in my head last night. Lots of people were huffing and puffing and drinking tons of water and overall looking pretty worn. Lots of people sitting out postures during standing or giving up mid posture. As we lied in Savasana she walked around the room, weaving in and out between all the “dead body” poses, she spoke and said something like: Guys, this heated room tonight is about 105-110 degrees and really humid. But think about it. What you are going through in here now is setting you up to handle the real stresses of life outside of here. It’s setting you up to be able to breathe and take on what happens at work, at home etc. She’s right, of course. The practice helps us to roll with things. To not panic. To just breathe. To better manage stressful situations.

Ok, so I never really like when the teacher opens the door during class, but on this night when Mimi popped the door open for a few seconds it was like I got a huge breath of air that re-energized me. Felt so good. And just like that the door was closed. Moving on.

Class ends. I have never seen so many people jump up at the same time to get out of the room. And the lights were off by then so I think some people even got stepped on. Ouch! Some didn’t even wait for Mimi to exit first. Out in the lobby people just look spent, drained and tired. Most were sucking on oranges (our studio supplies oranges, apples and bananas after every class. Love that.) I mention to one guy that class was great and alls he could say was a strained “huh?” I left him alone, remembering how I felt after class on Sunday!

When I talk to other Bikram folks about the types of things that go on in the hot room we get it, but when I talk to other people about what goes on they always seem to display this face that is all scrunched up and eyes are squinty. And you just know what’s going to come out of there mouth next. If they’re nice, they’ll say “well, sounds challenging. Good for you”. If they’re honest, they just say “that’s insane!”

This morning one of my coworkers came into my office and we were talking about Bikram. He’s almost ready to try a class with me and keeps asking me for more info. He’s in good shape and works out probably 5 days a week. He looked at the postures on my wall and said. “Oh those are easy. No problem!” Really? So I had him try a few: Balancing Stick, Standing Bow and Eagle. Too funny. I let him try them on his own first before I started making all the corrections to his arms, head, hands, feet etc. Then I said...and keep in mind the class is 90 min in a humid room at least 105 degrees. He acquiesced. No Bikram is NOT easy. It’s not suppose to be easy. That’s what keeps us coming back day after day. We like the challenge of the practice. It’s still wild to me how different every day in the hot room is. Crazy. Day at a time. Bikram takes time. And we have a lifetime to keep trying to get it right. We just need to show up and practice.

Day 10 tonight! Yeah! So happy to hit the double digits. I feel stronger today 10 days in than I did during the first few days of the challenge. It’s just part of my daily routine now. Let’s see how I feel at day 20. Hoping to get to the 5:30 tonight if traffic cooperates. Have a happy day!

Cheers,
Traci