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What a Broken Back Taught Me About the Mind’s Deceptions

Healing, Mental Benefits, Philosophy, Physical Benefits, Practice, Teaching and Coaching, True Stories

What if the thing that is making your pain worse—or your frustration worse, or your practice harder—is not your body at all?

What happens when we prioritize thoughts and words over all other forms of evidence – evidence from the body, evidence from behaviors, and evidence from the internal and interpersonal systems that tell us, “Something isn’t quite right here.  Things are not lining up somehow.”

The Body Has Something to Say

A fairly young yoga practitioner – in his late 20s – came to talk to me after class the other day. 

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Blessings in the Form of a Broken Back, part 3 | The Healing Power of Stillness |

Healing, Physical Benefits, Practice, True Stories

I have learned a dozen lessons and received a thousand blessings from my back injury on March 17, 2004.

Today is the twenty-second anniversary of that morning.

If you missed the first two parts of this story, you can read Part 1 and Part 2 first. But the short version is this: I slipped on black ice on my way to a 6:00 am Bikram Yoga class in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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Everything Else Can Wait – Journal Entry

Ethnography and Culture, Healing, Philosophy

**See the end for the readings fresh on my mind this afternoon.

Everything else can wait.

For each of us as individuals, everything else can wait.

Whether we are feeling stressed, purposeless, or bored….whether we are lonely, overweight, addicted, or over-worked…..  Whether we are just waking up as young adults or whether we are in our later decades of life…..  Whether we are energetic and healty, or suffering a chronic illness and pains….

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Yoga Is A Language: Building Internal Literacy in the Original Hot Bikram Yoga Practice

Ethnography and Culture, Mental Benefits, Philosophy

How long did it take each of us to learn the basics of our first language? And how many hours of practice have we had?

The internal physical systems are much more intricate than spoken or written language, yet we expect to “get it” quickly and move on to another feat of accomplishment, well before we’ve even mastered the basic alphabet of the body!

In under 6 minutes, check out this quick video chat about how the Original Hot Bikram Yoga practice helps us develop and master basic internal literacy!!

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How Bikram Yoga Brought Me Inner Freedom

Ethnography and Culture, Philosophy

From the age of 16 through age 25, I struggled with addictive thoughts and behaviors related to eating, food, my body, and self-image.

I was essentially imprisoned in my own mind.  How many hours, days, weeks, months….were lost to cycles of self-destructive behaviors and obsessions?

Once I started my intense and regular practice of The Original Hot Bikram Yoga, though, things started to change.

And eventually they healed permanently. 

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Bikram Yoga, Our Educational Upbringing, and Inner Success

Ethnography and Culture, Philosophy

I love school and I pretty much always have.  I have had some outstanding teachers all along the way.  In elementary, secondary, post-secondary, graduate, and unofficial schooling!  I am beyond grateful to all of them.

Something I have realized lately is that even the best school systems are centered around skills for material, external success.  This is most certainly needed.

However I have noticed that nearly all of us make it to adulthood or finish our official schooling with a very small amount of internal success. 

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How To Beat the Heat (and Reduce Your Footprint!)

Biomedicine, Ethnography and Culture, Health, Physical Benefits, Science, Studies

When the summer heat waves arrive in Michigan, most of us instinctively reach for the air conditioning. And while A/C is a nice creature comfort, we overuse it.  To our physiological and ecological detriment.

The thought of going into a hot room to actually handle the heat doesn’t make sense at first.  The usual thought response is:

“No way, it’s hot enough already!”

“Why would I choose to sweat more?”

Furthermore, since the more “mainstream” hot yoga classes in North America have become more movement based, I can understand why many non-bikram-lineage hot yoga studios are turning down their heat.

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Yoga Near Me – Traditional Yoga Asana

Ethnography and Culture, Philosophy

This summer it will be – for me – twenty years into teaching The Original Hot (Bikram) Yoga.  Which is only a fraction of the amount of time that my yoga mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents practiced and taught before they trained me.  But 20 years is finally enough to deeply understand where Bikram is coming from when he says, “It takes 10 years to become a yoga teacher.”

This prescription signifies a deep level of respect for what yoga asana is, what a yoga asana teacher is supposed to do, and the level of training & experience that one should have to transmit a living practice.

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Inflammation and Our Health

Biomedicine, Ethnography and Culture, Health, Mental Benefits, Philosophy, Physical Benefits, Science, Studies

I am especially grateful for the connection with those of you who take classes regularly.

We seem to be on a pretty magical healing journey together.

Themes emerge spontaneously.  Questions come up.  Connections are made.  We all grow together.

One of the themes from the last week or two (or three?) has been the topic of inflammation.

This is not a brand new idea for us; our book Hope for Autoimmune Disease danced with the topic through the 15 health narratives that we documented.

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Bikram Yoga: What Happens If You DON’T Practice

Current Research, Ethnography and Culture, Healing, Health, Mental Benefits, Philosophy, Physical Benefits, Practice, Student Highlights, True Stories
What Happens When You DON'T Do Bikram Yoga

by Ann Chrapkiewicz

For almost 20 years now, I have been sharing a certain topic with anyone and everyone who might want to listen.

Just a few minutes on this website will tell you what that topic has been.
An hour spent with our book on Bikram Yoga and Autoimmune Disease will also give you a clue.

Any guesses?

Answer: “What happens to humans when they do Bikram Yoga.”

Yep, that’s it. 

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Is Bikram Yoga Only Focused on the Physical?

Ethnography and Culture, Healing, Mental Benefits, Philosophy, Practice
bikram yoga toe stand pose asana original hot yoga sedona arizona cathedral rock

by Ann Chrapkiewicz

Question: Is Bikram Yoga too focused on the Physical?  Is it a dominantly physical practice?

Answer: Well….some people do say, “Yes.”

I have heard it over and over.  Things like: “They are so focused on their bodies.”   Or: “those mirrors – they are so vain.”  “Competitive”.  Or: “You can’t possibly go within when you have all of that heat and sweat and light.”

My response to these answers is that 1) they are coming from the outside looking in, making a judgment without experience. 

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Healthy Choices for a Health Practice | Indoor Yoga during COVID |

Healing, Health, Online Classes, Physical Benefits, Science
camel pose yoga men bikram

October 1, 2022 UPDATE: Masks are no longer required in our facilities but are welcome and invited for anyone who chooses to wear one.

Additional air purifiers have been added to our yoga room, and we are continuing to maintain a room capacity of 21 as well as a 6-7 foot spacing between everyone in the room.

***************************************************************************

Original Post from July 22, 2022:

I am one of those people who pondered, even during the first weeks of COVID shutdowns,  whether there would ever be an “end” to the pandemic.

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Top 5 Things You Can Do in Standing Head to Knee….

Uncategorized

….while wearing a mask!

(And then a little Health and Safety Update for you)

 

#5  Clean some lunch remnants out of your molars…with your tongue.

#4  Swear silently to yourself at your most challenging posture.
(Oh wait, I was already doing that without a mask!)

#3  Purse your lips like Alec Baldwin impersonating Donald Trump.

#2  Breathe smoothly, in and out by your nose, calmly….like you’re supposed to be doing anyways. 

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New Vision: WE Will Be the Ones to Save Bikram Yoga | Becoming a Community-Supported Yoga Collective |

Biomedicine, Ethnography and Culture, In The News, Mental Benefits, Online Classes, Physical Benefits, Special Projects, Testimonials, True Stories
save bikram yoga patreon page

–by Ann Chrapkiewicz

21 months into the pandemic, it is time for me to speak up.  Well over 50% of Bikram Yoga studios in the U.S. have closed since spring 2020, and that wave of closures is not over.  I have been doing everything I can to not be one of those who close, and I will continue to do everything I can.  But at this point a broader base of support is required, and I am asking YOU to be a part of this.

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This Body is the Earth | Bikram Yoga as a Tool for Reconnection | Happy Earth Day!

Ethnography and Culture, Healing, Mental Benefits, Philosophy, Practice
Pranayama Deep Breathing Bikram Yoga Red Rock Crossing Sedona Arizona

by Ann Chrapkiewicz

For those of us who have been raised in civilizations of extractive capitalism, tools for healing and reconnection are needed.   Badly.  By all of us.

Disconnection, alienation, and estrangement from the earth (including our living, breathing bodies) is pretty much par for the course.

So on this Earth Day 2021 and all going forward, I want to include our human bodies as part of the earth that we celebrate, connect with, protect, love, and heal.

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