There is a certain type of camaraderie that comes with Bikram yoga. We are all in the hot room - suffering - but we know exactly why we're there. To be stronger, mentally and physically.
One of my favourite things about the 6am classes is that everyone who is there has a certain type of determination about them. They drag their asses out of bed at 5am to get into the hot room to sweat and find their focus for the day. I have heard a few teachers say in class that they love teaching us because we are easy to teach. We barely fidget, we reach for our feet immediately when the dialogue tells us and we have little distraction from what has happened during the day. Most of us who come into the studio are still half asleep - eyes half closed, hair messy, yoga clothes on underneath sweat pants. I'm sure at some point I have still had the imprints of the sheets across my face.
I have friendships in my 6am classes that are difficult to define. We empathize with getting up before the rest of the world. We have little bitch session before class. We chat about work, travel, dreams, sleep patterns. We catch each others eyes in the mirror and give encouraging smiles. We notice when someone has gone deeper in a pose than they ever have before. We give encouraging hand squeezes when we stretch our arms way out in Full Locust. We wonder aloud to each other if we haven't seen a fellow yogini in a while. We get excited when a friend has come back from a holiday and we want to hear all about it in the 5 minutes before class and the 5 minutes after.
It really is amazing how contact with a person or a group of people no matter how big or small can make an impact on you.
Just another reason to love my yoga.
2 comments:
Aww, encouraging hand squeezes? That is adorable. I want my hand squeezed! :-)
I don't teach yoga, but I agree about the early-morning focus and determination. I loved the students I had at my 7:00 a.m. classes. They were a cut above the rest, and since caffeine hadn't kicked in yet, the classes were always easy to manage.
I used to practice consistently in the mornings when I lived in D.C. I'd race to the 6:15 a.m. class and then race to get to work by 8:30 a.m. And in that sunrise class, I'd share my yoga with at least two other regulars, two women, whose names and faces I still remember oh so vividly. We were comrades.
I miss that morning class. I miss those yogis.
It is a close community, this yoga.
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