I grew up on wheels – bikes, skateboards, inline skates and ton's of falling. Up until the beginning of this year, I'd drive out to the skate park every weekend and ride the ramps. Skating was very hard on my body, and every time I bashed my knee, wrist, or hip on the ramps it got more painful. When I wasn't skating, I was in the gym pushing weights. A few years ago I was lifting a barbell over my head and felt a sharp pain in the middle of my back. I visited a sports doctor who told me I had popped a rib. After x-rays, it turned out I had mild scoliosis. I thought for sure that I was going to be in a wheelchair by the time I was 60 because of all the damage I had done with the skating and weight lifting.
I'm not sure how it happened, but my fiancé Lisa finally convinced me to go to yoga class with her in November of 2006. When I first started practicing, it was all about the glory of the posture. The more yoga I did, I found that it wasn't the posture that was the object of practicing, but the practice itself. Once I started letting go and allowing the yoga to work instead of working on the yoga I knew that this would be something that I would never stop doing. I had found a fountain of youth. I would not be in a wheelchair by 60, instead I would be standing on my head and doing yoga poses. Every time I walk into the yoga room I know that I'm about to peel away another layer and work out another old injury. My body is slowly healing itself with the help of Bikram yoga.
This is only one aspect in which yoga has helped me. There is not enough time to tell you all the ways that Bikram yoga has enhanced my life because I feel like I could go on forever. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful and strong community of yogi's. I am grateful for all the students that attend class because they are so inspiring. I am humbled by the dedication of the instructors who guide us though our yogic journey. This yoga is so powerful, just let it take over and you will see some amazing changes.
-Brian
