Bikram LA

LA is beautiful as always, you can’t beat this weather it is absolutely fabulous and we are loving every minute of it. I always wonder how people can have a normal routine here.
Job, school, go to work every day. It feels like the days are so gorgeous here everyone should be off to enjoy them. Nothing is farther from the truth, most people have to work really hard to be able to afford to live in this popular place on the planet.

Not me I am on vacation and of course looking for a nice place to practice for the two weeks before training. We are staying with my in-laws and I’ve found a studio about twenty minutes from here.

Bikram Yoga Westlake Village is by far the nicest Bikram studio I have ever practiced in. The Director Mahnaz runs a tight ship. She is the one greeting me at my first visit and will teach the class that morning. She teaches a great class adding something I have never experienced; a stopwatch!

This might not sound like anything special to many of you reading it but I assure you it was for me. I fell in love with Mahnaz’s stopwatch style instantly! When I talked to her after class she told me that’s how all the teachers who teach at Westlake Village teach. They use the stopwatch to keep the practice honest. I LOVE IT.
I’ve visited the studio several times now and each and every teacher I had was really good. The fun part about the stopwatch for me is that you know the posture is going to be exactly as long as it should be. You can give it your 100% knowing you won’t be left in the posture while your teacher is drifting off in a story. ‘Keeping an honest practice’ it all made sense to me while doing classes with each one of them. I love the style, I might have to adopt it and bring it back with me to Germany.

The heat is funny here. Since it is already so hot outside and it has been 100F/35C over the last couple of days the temp inside the studio is really not so shocking. It makes you wonder if it’s really hot enough when you walk in but when you’re completely soaked after half moon you know it is. Your body just gets used to the heat.

Bikram Yoga LA has been great and I am looking forward to return to this beautiful studio once a year while I’m here to visit our family. Maybe I could even teach a class here, I love the thought of that.
All girls have been extremely supportive of me going to training and I have a good understanding of what to expect for the next nine weeks. It sounds like I’m off to boot camp…….

Strategy?

Many of my friends have asked me what my strategy is. What do you do to prepare for nine weeks Bikram Yoga Teacher Training?

I’m not sure how to prepare for it but I do know I feel like I’m ready.

My ideal is to get to training physically fit to go. Mentally I am ready to go for the physical challenge of doing double classes for 9 wks. I’ve never done a double ever. Debated to do a few before I go and have decided not to. It won’t make that much difference to do them now I think and I want to spend the time with my family rather than being away from them for four hours a day.

Some trainers I’ve met over the past weeks all told me the same thing; take it easy in the beginning, let yourself adjust to the schedule, the heat, the group and the routine. Don’t push yourself too hard the first couple of weeks. That sounds like very good advice and that’s what I’ll do.

26 postures come with 46 pages of text known as “the dialog”. It’s hard copy that Bikram wrote for all his teachers to memorize. Each posture comes with a dialog and it’s something we have to know by heart. For the past couple of months I have tried to look into this copy as much as I can to make it easier on myself once the training is going on. It’s very hard to just try to memorize a posture when the rest of your live is also going on but I do feel I have spend a good amount of time with it so it won’t be new once we have to present.

My biggest challenge will be being away from my guys for 9 wks. That is something I can not possibly prepare for. It’s something I have to take one week at the time. We’ll e-mail and we’ll Skype. Most of all we’re connected either way. They’ll be always in my thoughts.
My oldest son already told me ‘Mom you can’t quit, there are no quitters in the Kyle family’. He’s got that right!

From the moment I decided to do this training I have never doubted my choice to go. It will be an amazing experience and I can’t wait to share my story with you as I go.
It has been incredible to see how many people support me while doing this. Your nice words, your sweet notes and all the positive feedback means the world to me.

It is all starting

It is all starting.

We safely arrived in the USA again and have three weeks vacation ahead of us. Then my husband will take the boys back to Germany, our nanny will fly from Portland to Germany and I will stay in LA to start TT (Bikram teacher training) It’s all very surreal.

It’s always nice to be back in the US it’s a great place to visit. My green card got me in here fine again although I can’t say it was without questions asked. It makes me wonder how my fellow non-American students will get in. It can’t always be easy to justify your nine weeks stay at a ‘Spa Resort’ in Palm Dessert. How does this sound: “There is an economic crisis going on but I have decided to treat myself on a nine weeks spa treatment”. “ I love me!” Not sure if they’ll buy it. I’ll cross my fingers for all of those coming over to the US in the next few weeks.
Our vacation starts in Portland, Oregon. We’ve lived here for three years and Portland has a very special place in our hearts. Not only do we still have a home here we also have an incredible group of friends here that we can’t wait to reconnect with again.
Our house has renters in it so we’ll be scattered all over the North West. The boys will have sleep at their friend’s houses and I will stay with my friend that lives in our old street. It’s good to be home it all feels very natural.

Everyone is aware of my training coming up and they all have been so supportive. A day after landing it’s time to visit a studio. The closed studio is Bikram Yoga College of India Hall Street. When I walk in I am introduced to Bob the owner. What a wonderful man with an open smiley face, he is so excited to hear I am going to training and gives me a great deal for the week. The studio is very nice, fantastic classes and some serious heat! Once again I can’t tell you how luxury it feels to just pick a time and walk into a heated studio filled with other students and a teacher. This is something I’ll really miss when I’m back in my bathroom with the space heater again.
Hall Street has great teachers and each and every one of them has a unique style. I wish I could make notes during the classes and write down the things that really touched me. I’ve practiced four times this week and every class I was in Bob was there too, not teaching but practicing… somehow that stood out to me. It made me feel good to see he was still so committed to his practice.

Yes, I even made some progress in my practice. The heat is everything and I am just more flexible because of it. It has caused me to be a little sore the next day especially in my hamstrings. My goal is to get four practices in a week until TT(teacher training). It has to be enough to keep things going. The rest of the time I will spend with my family who I won’t see for a long time.

We are off to LA next for two more weeks of sun and relaxation time. My in-laws live in LA so we’ll all be together at the house. I’ve already found the studio closest to their house. I’ll visit there as soon as we get there…