Is hot yoga too rigid to make you flexible?
"Is it boring to do the same 26 poses every hot yoga class?"
Er...no. Waking up every morning isn't boring. Everytime you do it, it's another fresh start.
"What about how every teacher uses the same words to explain the poses - what's up with that?"
We do it to hypnotize you. We do it to brainwash you. We do it to control you.
Yes, really.
We do it because we're afraid that maybe you're already hypnotized. You're already too rigid. We want hot yoga to wake you up and stretch your...life. Here's what we mean.
Maybe you're hypnotized by your beliefs (are they even your beliefs? Didn't you get most of them from your parents, your teachers, your peers...? ) Maybe your default mode says these beliefs are "facts of life" or "reality." You stopped questioning; it's just the way things are. Life on Autopilot. Same S**t, Different Day.
How's that going?
Maybe you are already brainwashed - doing not what you want, but what is expected of you. (actually there have been many, many times I wished I could lather, rinse, repeat on my own brain; I would say we're all in need of a little brain Drain-o.)
Could that be why your brain feels blah?
As for control: wouldn't you just love to let go long enough to take the ride, to feel and trust that something larger is in control of your best interests, and you don't have to worry over it. How relaxing would that be?
Who controls your life right now? You..or your boss?
Welcome to Hot Yoga. Give us 90 minutes and we will guide you through stress, boredom and Same Stuff, Different Day Syndrome with...repetition.
Huh? How does that work?
You have a secret weapon, and it's your greatest weapon against stress: your ability to choose one thought over another.
The problem is, you never stop giving attention to the Yippers in your head long enough to make a new choice - you know, those yip-yip voices who repeat something like this: "Nah, you are not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, successful enough, not doing enough."
They don't stay quiet long enough for you to realize that you CAN choose a better feeling thought.
If you stop listening, the Yippers will go away. You can shut them down. But first, you have to distract them.
Meditation helps stop the train wreck in our minds. So does sleep. Going unconscious to the negative Yippers is one way to shut them up....temporarily.
Learning to substitute a better-feeling thought-voice is more permanently powerful.
So what does that have to do with hot yoga?
The script you hear in hot yoga is positive and powerful. It will occupy your mind so completely, you won't have any room for a negative thought. If you find yourself veering off, just pull yourself back to the words of your teacher; it only takes a second, and the lifeline is always there.
Your hot yoga teacher is trained to never let you down: he or she will never stop talking that hot talk to you.
There are no gaps, no silences, no room for the Yippers to edge back in. Count on the hot yoga words to take you to a better-feeling place - or at least a place less painful than your own mind.
And consider this: whatever you learn in hot yoga, you already know in your heart...it's just been chloroformed into silence by the Yippers.
Anytime you hear something wise from your hot yoga teacher, it's because you already knew it. Your entire hot yoga class is a mirroring process: your teachers show you what's already inside, so you can wake up and resonate with yourself again.
It's a lot like Hide and Seek - and remember how much fun that game was when you were a kid?
Many times you tell us, "You changed the script!" because you heard something for the first time in today's hot yoga class; and we believe you have.
Not that we haven't said it before.
You are resonating with it now, for the first time in a long time. You feel good. And there is no better wisdom than feeling good.
There is something deep and wise inside of you that is always waking up. Each hot yoga class is another chance to reawaken to how good you are and stretch further. Yes, the same poses. Yes, the same script, and perhaps even the same teacher.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (2)
http://youtu.be/o1Tt0yGMm88
Yes, Rhonda...Hot Yoga helps me press the 'record' button. Hot yoga has helped me move from the 'theta' state (state of imagination or hypnotic state/hypnotic trance/unconsciousness) to the 'Alpha' state (state of awareness). Do Hot Yoga consistently and choose which of the 30,000 expressions of yourself you want to be. Let Riverflow. "wake you up and stretch your...life" JaneC
Agreed, active open eye meditation for 90 minutes of hot yoga helped me finally receive the benefits of meditation (after trying seated, silent, closed eye meditation without getting there.).