...Or maybe I just needed a break. As predicted, I didn't continue without pause after finishing the 30 day challenge. Rather, I took three days off in a row, and then dragged myself to 7:15 pm class this evening. It wasn't a bust, thankfully, and my flexibility seemed limitless. Well, for me, anyway. In actuality it was quite limited, but I felt open and strong. I don't know if this is a yoga phenomenon or just the way I get sometimes naturally, but since the challenge ended and I took my break, I have been experiencing insane amounts of energy. It takes until at least 2 or 3 am to get sleepy enough to even attempt going to bed, and then I am up again by at least 8 if not earlier. What is this?! I should be using this to my advantage and accomplishing things, but unfortunately I also have "racing mind" so I'm finding it really difficult to focus. I hate that.
Yeah, so I would have gladly skipped AGAIN today but I knew I had to blow off some of this energy. A lot of times I think to myself that class exhausts me despite the seemingly indisputable claim that yoga gives a person more energy than it takes to practice. Well, not today. I zipped through class, and although I'm a bit more subdued I still have that racy feeling. It was a good class, though, as I mentioned. Whenever I'm sluggish and lethargic in class, it's much harder for me to focus and remain still between postures and during savasana. However, having extra energy and strength like I had today is great because I hardly feel the need to fidget at all and it feels very natural to hold completely still.
Anyway, we had a "yoga show off" in class today. Yoga show-offs pop up in class every now and then and are hardly ever dedicated exclusively to Bikram's, it seems - they usually come from a regular practice in some different style of yoga, or perhaps even dance or gymnastics. Some people think Bikram's is flashy, but it honestly isn't. It's very uniform, and everyone must be doing the same poses at the same time so that the class moves as one (unless, of course, you're lying out a pose, which is fine). Understanding the importance of this here is like baby steps. Even the most well practiced students rarely draw much attention to themselves unless a teacher calls it to them; otherwise, it's more like the better you get, the less you stand out. The opposite is true for yoga show-offs, though. Overly flexible, these types rebel against the postures in that they don't follow directions, often go so much deeper into a particular pose than prescribed that they're actually in a different pose, sometimes (smugly?) knowing and sometimes not even realizing, and their trademark seems to be holding the poses for longer so that, I assume, everyone can see how flexible they are. Ugh. Where do these wayward students come from? Ashtanga? Who knows.
However, this illustrates what I love about Bikram style yoga: the series is extremely humbling no matter what your level. All egotistical notions of progress get blown away by the very first instruction which is to just do what you're told and that's all there is to it. Some people say that Bikram's becomes "too easy". Alarms should be going off! What is "too easy"? Show me a practitioner that can sit or stand still for an hour and a half while maintaining the same focus and calm characteristic of the 20 second savasanas between postures during spine-strengthening series and then we'll talk about easy! I don't know, maybe I'm speaking too soon. In any case, it's really hard for me to stifle the voice inside my head that says, "I'm right, they're wrong!" even when it comes to yoga. Gotta work on that.
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