Bikram Yoga 30 Day Challenge--Day 3: Sunday, 11/20/11

I don't know much about most things, but there is one thing that I know for sure.  The more you do something, the more you practice anything...progress happens.  And so on Day 3, I walked into the HOT room after a long day of teaching classes.  7pm class at 72nd Street location.  The last class of the day... the room is always hotter and 72nd street location always feels way hotter than the other locations.

I was rushing from my last set of classes on the upper west side.  Definitely not the way I like to arrive to a class.  But when you're doing 30 days of non stop yoga, you fit it in when you can.  I'm struck that after only 3 days, I'm sitting taller, standing taller and feeling more open in my body and my mind.  It was apparent from the first moment I walked into the studio that tonight's challenge was going to be the heat.

That's the thing about Bikram.  The 26 postures are really easy to execute.  The Challenge is doing the practice in the heat.  Which is the real reason I'm drawn to this Challenge.  Sitting with discomfort is something that is good practice so I embraced that challenge tonight.  As I fought the heat and all the feelings and emotions that come from being overwhelmed at times in a posture, it occurred to me that in only 3 short days the class was not getting any easier.  The class was getting way harder.

Harder because I was pushing more and allowing myself to go deeper in each posture. Harder because my body was understanding and remembering where to go and how to go there more completely. And thus the work begins on Day 3.  An ex Coach of mine once told me that "It has to be ugly before it can be pretty." And yes the work tonight felt "ugly" in many places but I look forward to the beauty which is the reward of patience and hard work and the eventual letting go and just letting the practice happen.

That's the thing about progress.  It only happens one day at a time!