Hi everyone, Michele here, owner of Bikram Yoga San Jose, and we are having a great coffee chat and going through a lot of Bikramisms. There are a lot of idioms or phrases in the dialogue, and at BYSJ, we say them all: “Mama, give me money” or “like a Japanese ham sandwich,” and Bikram says, “Like a flower petal blooming.” We need to slice that one up, too. Sarah, why don’t you tell us what this next idiom is?
Sarah: This is a good one. “What’s the most important thing in your life?”
Michele, Matt, and Sarah: “Your life!”
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Michele: Bikram would always say, “The answer is in the question.”
Sarah: And people will give the answer, “yoga,” for example, or “family,” but it’s beyond that, it’s “your life.”
Michele: Please stay tuned to this because it is profound. It sounds like a simple sentence, but we often don’t take it seriously. We talk about the airplane example: They’re always asking you, with the oxygen, to put your mask on first before you put on another’s. Once you take care of that, then you can take care of everything else. I’ve learned that through my life, too. The more I take care of myself, the more I want to take care, and I feel even more closeness, and the importance of family and friends. But in our culture today, it’s almost the opposite. It’s your career, your family, and your sacrifice. And we don’t make the time, especially for 90 minutes of Bikram Yoga. But you know it’s going to haunt you in the end. The most important thing needs to be your life.
Matt: You don’t typically hear stories of people on their deathbed going, “Ah, you know, I wish I’d finished that sales report. I wish I’d done a better job with that PowerPoint presentation.”
Michele: You don’t want to look back like it’s too late. The first thing we do in class right away is work on the lungs. That is your life force. You’ve got to take care of your lungs, your life. Otherwise, you don’t have the competitive edge you aim for in a career. You can only run around with your grandchild if you care for yourself, right?
Matt: This idiom is a really interesting phrase because it underpins a common misunderstanding about Bikram Yoga, which is when you start practicing, you’re excited, you enjoy the yoga, and you enjoy doing the postures, and enjoy the hot room; it’s a challenge, but you really enjoy it. Then it becomes about getting good at all the postures, and that’s exciting, and then at some point, it’s frustrating. And if it’s too frustrating, then you might become disillusioned. But it’s not about that. It’s not so much about what’s happening in the room, it’s about what’s happening in your life. Yes, you come into the room for 90 minutes, and every 90 minutes is really hard, but every day, your life gets more flourishing, fluid, and thriving, which is wonderful. Who cares if 90 minutes is a struggle when the rest of your day is full of gloriousness and happiness?
Michele: We do this in our culture, too. We have our life, and then we have a workout. Bikram Yoga starts to tell you that what you’re doing here is you build the habit so that you can have this great life. It might be the first time that people understand that you need to take care of yourself to have the life you want – to say the most important thing in your life is your life. For the first time, what you’re saying is you’re realizing that yoga is a means to an end. It is not about great postures. It’s a way for you to have this great life. That’s why, when people say to me, “I can’t do this more than once or twice a week,” I feel like they’re compartmentalizing. For me, I don’t even think about it, and you will, too, over time. As you practice yoga more, it will integrate into your life. It becomes part of your life because it is the most important thing in your life.
Matt: Imagine if someone said, “I can only afford to breathe on Mondays and Thursdays. I don’t have time to breathe on the other days. When it comes to Tuesdays and Saturdays, I can fit it in. But other than that, I’m too busy, so I can’t fit those things in.” If somebody said that to you, you’d start laughing and think it was preposterous.
Sarah: Context is interesting because people will say, “I haven’t got time. It’s 90 minutes, there’s the showering, and then there’s the driving time.” Yeah, it is a long time, I get it. Here’s the thing, though: let’s make a worst-case scenario. You can’t breathe properly, you’re in pain, you can’t think properly. How much time do you have left for the rest of the 24 hours? You know, you’ll have all that time available because you did yoga.
Michele: How many of us are better performers for the next 22 and a half hours when we practice our yoga? I’m more compassionate, I’m more focused, I’m more everything, right?
Matt: Another phrase, not a Bikramism, is “If you don’t make space for your wellness, you’re gonna have to make space for your illness.”
Michele: Give yourself permission, you guys; if you’re starting this practice and trying to own these things, show up as much as you can and let it build as a habit. Don’t beat yourself up. A teacher used to tell me this: wake up every day and know six classes are available to you. Can you make one? Great. You can’t today? When you wake up the next day, “I’ve got six classes.” Stay with it, and you’ll slowly build the habit, saying to yourself, “Yes, this is the most important thing, and I got to try to get here.” Give yourself permission to build the habit.
The other thing that’s going to help you is the community; the fact that there are great people here who will be like you in some ways and not like you in others but enthusiastic about the practice – this is going to help you realize that this is the most important thing in your life. It will encourage you and inspire you to keep coming. There’s something special about yoga communities; you’re more than just passing through. You’re in this together. So, we’re going to ask you this question: What’s the most important thing in your life?
Michele, Matt, and Sarah: “Your life!”