Hi, everyone. Michele Vennard here, and I’m with Matt and Sarah Newman. We’re just sitting here on a lovely day doing what we love to do: talk about yoga. And we’re dissecting, going through Bikram idioms, some that you hear in the dialogue, and many that Bikram says when he’s giving lectures, on his CDs, or in his books. Sometimes, we will say them – you might be in class, and you’re like, what was that? But they’re full of good information, as simple as they are. And this one is so straightforward. Sarah, why don’t you say what this one is? Remember, it’s a Bikram idiom. It’s not anything we’re making up.
Sarah: “Cut the bullshit. Do the posture.”
Michele: Are you guys standing up right now? Getting ready to do a posture? 😂
Sarah: It’s very important. Our minds are full of this stuff, bullshit. And some of it seems really important. It’s bullshit when it’s getting in the way of who you really are.
Michele: Yeah, even talking about the dialogue, it kind of cuts right through the bullshit. It goes right to the command into the action. You know, it doesn’t give a lot of conversation about what we’re about to do. Just grab your foot!
Matt: That’s the real essence of hatha yoga. Bikram Yoga is a rich, traditional hatha yoga, in the strong tradition of Indian hatha yoga. Hatha yoga is physical yoga; it’s forceful: hatha. One of the translations of hatha is about forceful yoga, meaning you’re bringing it to the best that you can. That will look different if you are recovering from an accident versus at the peak of your fitness. It will look different, but you’re bringing it. And everybody can bring it. The person who was in hospital yesterday could bring it today. It won’t look like very much from the outside, but they’ll still be bringing it. And so just getting past whatever you have in the way, to bring it, developing that internal muscle, fierce fire, and determination.
Michele: Here’s one of the ways to cut the bullshit. To elaborate on what we were talking about, if you think that you need to be flexible to come here and do yoga, cut that bullshit! Or if you think you need to be strong, right? The truth is, everybody can do it. We were talking about this before. We have a gentleman here who used to practice quite a bit who, unfortunately, had a major injury to his spinal cord. He would do what he could, even if it meant only lifting his finger, but trying 100%, giving it all his effort. And that’s what you need to do as you come in, be as you are.
Sarah: You don’t have to be vegan or eat raw meat, or be a certain weight, or have studied anything; you only have to come.
Michele: You simply need to show up. That’s why this yoga is so embracing; it really is for eight billion people. It truly is. You just need to come on an empty stomach; it’s probably better. But, you know, come as you are. Isn’t it great? It’s refreshing that we cut the bullshit because then the expectations and the pressures are off, right?
Matt: You know, typically, when you give somebody a challenge, what immediately arises are thoughts that they have about why they can’t do it, or may only be able to do half of it, or why they might be slow at doing it, or something. These thoughts come flooding into your head. What if you just cut that out? If none of that’s there, what is left other than to take the action? And that’s the beauty of this yoga. It isn’t about what happens. It isn’t about how strong, flexible, tall, or short you are. It’s simply about trying. And there’s not one person on the planet who can’t try, no matter what the conditions are.
We have people who are missing one leg, missing two legs, who do or don’t have use of their legs at all. We have people who practice with only one arm. It makes no difference. We have people who are cognitively impaired for whatever reason, and it doesn’t matter. None of it matters. You have arthritis? You’re in pain? Well, good for you. In a way, you have an advantage because one of the things you want to focus on is to feel better in that regard. So you’re going to have to work through that discomfort. And that gives you a focal point. And so, that disadvantage can become your advantage.
Sarah: In our practice, we have people who are super fit as well and people in the middle of the two, and they’re all getting advantages by having this straightforward approach.
Michele: And it’s funny too because you go in the room, and you really strip down. It doesn’t matter what your ZIP code is, what kind of car you drive, or what clothes you wear, right? We’re all sweating. There’s no hierarchy. We’re all in there, looking in the mirror, trying our best to do our best. The other thing that it does when you cut the bullshit in your yoga practice is you’re going to find in your life that you start to cut your own bullshit too. And you begin to step forward on stuff. How many of us put things in the way, which are distractions, from you trying to get from point A to point B in your life? And the more you practice that in the room, you get those things out of the way.
I always think that they’re floating around like a silent movie. I don’t hear the volume, and I move straight forward into what the action is. So that’s why this is so powerful. And the other thing we were saying before is that the teacher doesn’t demonstrate this. I love that. That’s brilliant because you can’t even look at the podium to see or compare. You have to figure it out for yourself, which is so great. It helps you cut the bullshit because you can’t create a scenario where you think you can’t do something. You have to work with what you have, which is the point; you’re a unique human being.
Matt: So I’m using an analogy to this saying recently in classes, where I say to people, and I watch people, and some of the people who feel like they’re least able to do a posture, put the least amount of effort into it, so I’d say to everyone, “If I threw you in the ocean, or you fell overboard from a boat, would you say you’re not very good at treading water and drown, or would you work like crazy to tread water as best as you possibly could until you were rescued, or could you swim rescue yourself? Of course, there’s no debate; you would work like crazy to survive. In life-threatening situations, the bullshit tends to go out the window because our survival instincts take over, and suddenly we can do all these amazing things. Then, we make up stories about how that was adrenaline, but it isn’t. It’s merely the lack of bullshit. It’s not the presence of adrenaline, it’s a lack of bullshit. We’re all very capable.
Michele: It’s funny and humbling, and I’m probably vulnerable here, but in my life, a lot of things were given to me. I was more catered to in some aspects, and I came to resent that. I didn’t know how much it was hurting me, and I remember the yoga showing me that, right? You know, you’re appreciative, but on the other side, well, wait a minute, that doesn’t serve me. That’s what yoga is; it’s interesting how it helps you do a deep dive.
Matt: That’s a really good point. One of the reasons we encourage people in the class to work hard. Part of it is cutting the bullshit and learning to cut the bullshit, and getting good at cutting the bullshit. But the other thing is your sense of satisfaction at the end of class. That’s you, that’s not us. No matter what the teacher said, you did it all. You did 100% of it, and it’s all you. And that satisfaction is priceless.
Sarah: That’s another bit from Bikram: “The credit goes to you.” It’s absolutely true.
Michele: So Sarah, maybe you can mention those. There are three key aspects that the late Emmy Cleaves always said about what’s involved. This is kind of along the lines of, cut the bullshit, do the posture, because these three things are being asked of you, and if you’re not given these three things, then you’re not making the progress that you could be making.
Sarah: Yes, there are three things: first, precision. So Bikram will say, “99% right is 100% wrong.” Now, this isn’t encouraging you to be perfect. Perfection is not interesting. The goalpost will always change, and that’s a good thing. It is how you are trying when you hear the words, how you are trying to deal with those words in your body, with your mind, as precise as possible, according to what you understand today, according to what you can do today, as precise as possible. Then frequency. You have to come a lot. We say a minimum of three times a week. It’s a good minimum, but it’s a minimum. You have to come a lot, and you have to keep repeating that precision. And you repeat it with intensity. It’s an intensity of focus, concentration, and physical effort. And again, what you can do today, your 100%, but you have to make that commitment to be intensely focused on the precision, on the actions, to try precisely how it is designed, according to what you can do, not deviating, not letting the bullshit get in the way.
Michele: Precision, frequency, and intensity. Even in five seconds, those three together change you completely.
Sarah: You literally walk out differently than you walked in. And your life is different because you take those qualities and practice them. It’s not just conscious; it seeps into the unconscious, into the cell, so you walk out and look at the situation differently.
Michele: Yeah, that’s a key thing. Do not think that this is logical versus cerebral. You only need to come and do this, and know that it will integrate, permeate, and metabolize in you. If you were to prescribe three actions that you could do, those would be it.
Sarah: Those would be precision, frequency, and intensity.
Michele: And that automatically cuts the through the bullshit.
Matt: And the intensity is really important. When we say try 100%, we mean the 100% of what’s available today. So it’s not 100% in an abstract, you know, against an Olympic standard, but the 100% of what you have available today. Anybody can give that 100%; that’s what will make the difference. We, as humans, are highly adaptable. We can morph; we can change physically, mentally, and emotionally. We’re very pliable. But it’s only when you bring intensity to a moment, a concentrated direction of focus, and a particular technique that the change will happen. And it will happen much faster when you bring some intensity to it than if you casually go, “I’ll just lean into it a little bit; maybe something good will happen.” Not much is gonna happen.
Michele: What you’re describing is that you’re creating your own distraction, and you have to be aware of this. And I’ll know sometimes when I’m creating a distraction, it’s like, wow, I’m in that mood today, right? You know. You’ll know for yourself; you’ll go, geez, I’m creating bullshit here. I’m taking too much water, sitting down too much, wiping the sweat, and fumbling with my hair too much. You’ll know all those things, and then you start to get curious, like, why am I doing that? What am I avoiding, right? You know, so I think it’s interesting.
Matt: You mentioned that it is not to analyze why you’re doing it, but to stop doing it. It doesn’t matter, right? You don’t need to go down a rabbit hole to understand why; it’s because we’re human. It happens, but practice noticing it so you can let it go. Priceless.
Michele: Good stuff, you guys. So I want you all to cut the bullshit, and show up, and show up and do the posture, and come in and do the yoga. That’s what this whole thing is about; it’s for you, to encourage you to stay on it if you’re doing the practice. Hopefully, you learned a little bit more here in developing your practice, and if you’re starting on that journey, keep going and ask us questions anytime. We love talking about yoga.