Bikram Choudhury

Namaste,

If you have had the good fortune of spending time with Bikram Choudhury, then you will recognize the unique phrases quoted below. If you have yet to meet the man, then you might need to read these lines a time or two. At first, the messages seem as foreign as the poses once did. However, after a short time, you begin to understand their meaning “like a flower petal blooming”.

I just returned from a trip to Las Vegas where I attended a 5-day Bikram Advanced Yoga Retreat. Being in the presence of Bikram in this fashion is intense and incredibly empowering. With Bikram you learn to cross over the threshold and increase the limit of your mental strength.

In Vegas, there were no mirrors, no mats, and no heat. I could only concentrate on what Bikram had to say about each pose. “Number one problem in this culture is that we are slaves to the bad habits. We have a monkey mind, junk body and live by our excuses.” Like his yoga, his words aren’t subtle. Even so, he is charming and loving in his delivery, and his teaching style reaches in and elevates your life.

Bikram is decorated with yoga championship titles and he credits them all to his guru, Bishnu Ghosh, the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda. Bikram’s yoga therapy expertise caught the attention of President Richard Nixon who brought Bikram and his curative approach to the United States. Actress Shirley MacLaine helped make him famous, and you and I have made him popular and prosperous, sustaining over 750 Bikram Yoga studios worldwide. It’s 51 years of “selling the truth, not cheesecake,” says Bikram, all by doing his 26 poses in a very hot room for 90 minutes. “Fix the spine, then you fix the brain. It’s so simple.”

I share this with you because YOU, both new and regular practitioners, have a rare opportunity to see him for yourself as he comes to teach a special seminar in San Francisco for the first time in 8 years on Saturday and Sunday, September 23rd and 24th. You have shared some of your amazing stories with me of how Bikram Yoga helped cure osteoporosis, thyroidism, high blood pressure, fibromyalgia, depression, diabetes, and more, but it is the freedom we feel from those nagging everyday anxieties that compel us to do the yoga day after day: more
relaxed in traffic, more patient with screaming kids, more confident when talking with co-workers–the list goes on. Bikram Yoga helps us make desired changes to our lives.

Consider this once-in-a-lifetime chance: the opportunity to learn Bikram Yoga directly from the source. You will give your best because he will pull out your best. “If I can do it, you can do it,” says Bikram. He has no interest in creating a bunch of Bikram Choudhurys. However, he has a bull dog’s determination to give you the tools to live your best life. “Having means nothing if you don’t know how to use it.”

You will absorb these “Bikramisms” as nuggets of wisdom to correct your postures, as a means to improving your life. “This is the only subject in the world where the object is you,” says Bikram. What could be more important?

Michele, Director/Owner BYSJ