**See the end for the readings fresh on my mind this afternoon.
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….
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
by Ann Chrapkiewicz
Over a decade ago, one of my most influential yoga teachers at the time presented me with a quote:
It made sense to me on some levels, and I thought I could relate to not caring about the status quo. I had a history of peacefully withdrawing from certain social circles and finding my own way.