Hot Yoga For Dummies

Having a great hot yoga class isn’t about how smart you are; it’s about how dumb you are willing to let yourself be.

The three most dangerous words in the English language, and the ones that will sabotage your every hot yoga class, are:

“I know that.”

The most successful people throughout history and right now in our hot yoga room, are those who know that they don’t know. And are ready to learn something new.

How teachable are you?

What is your Teachability Index?

Never mind your IQ; you need a high Teachability Index. This is the measure of how open you are to learn in any given situation.

When your Teachability Index is low, your learning valve is stuck.

The good news is that it isn’t stuck forever; your Teachability Index fluctuates all the time. And you control it.

How do you know your Teachability Index?

Have you ever heard someone explain something and, before they finished, you said, “I got it.” 

Your teachability index just plummeted.  The moment you say or even think, “I know that,” you shut down. 

On the other hand, when you reflexively answer, “I don’t know,” to any question, you have already “decided” that you don’t know – and your mind hears that. Your Teachability Index lowers then, too. Your mind takes you seriously; thus, if you decide that you “don’t know,” then you can never allow yourself to be someone who finds answers.

So What's the Answer?

Once you choose a subject and a teacher, be ready to learn.  All that really means is, remain open in your mind, and your heart.

If you don’t have the hot yoga practice you want right now, know that it's all there, waiting to be learned, once you are teachable.

Raise your Teachability Index by answering these questions:

1. Are you following the teacher’s instructions in every hot yoga pose, (YES)  or are you thinking that you already know what to do? (NO)
   
2. Are you listening and following what is being said right now...and now... and now? (YES)
   
3. Are you anticipating the next pose...like, are your arms raised for sit up while Savasana is still on? (NO)
   
4. Are you doing poses the way your favorite hot yoga teacher showed you, instead of this following this hot yoga teacher's instructions ? (NO)
   

If your answers match my parenthesis, your Teachability Index is high and you are ready to make the most of your hot yoga class.

Who is your Best Teacher?

Evaluate the teacher and the teaching itself. Does your teacher practice, and does he or she have the result? Has hot yoga helped others achieve the goal you also want?

 This is why we teach the hot 26 Bikram-style yoga at Riverflow Yoga: the creator of the sequence, Bikram Choudury, is living proof of its value.

Bikram was a champion yogi – yes, in India yoga is a competitive sport and for centuries, yogis have competed in a sort of yoga Olympics – as well as a bodybuilder. In his twenties, Bikram was involved in a serious accident that crushed his knees and rendered him crippled for life, so his doctors said (he dropped massive weights on his legs during bodybuilding ).

But Bikram had a lifelong high teachability habit, having opened himself long ago to his teacher Bishnu Ghosh.

Ghosh created the 26 asana sequence now known as Bkram yoga and instructed Bikram to do this series daily. As hot yoga students, can you imagine the pain of doing the standing series with crushed knees?

But Bikram followed the asana series, to the best of his ability (how many times have you heard that in hot yoga class? Surely Bikram could not do a perfect Standing Head to Knee, or standing anything, right after his injury.) His teacher instructed him, as we instruct you, to just follow the careful instructions to the best of your ability with 100% focused effort.

You know the rest of the story. Today at 65 years old Bikram's perfect healthy body is an example of using healing power inside each of us and the value of Hot 26 Yoga to activate it.

Bikram's is not the only story of complete healing with Bikram yoga. You can read about his student Mary Jarvis,  who came back from a crippling car accident that crished her spine; and you can read thousands more positive stories of healing results from hot yoga - some in our own yoga studio.

So maybe you can trust hot yoga.

I am not saying not to question. I am saying that when you come to hot yoga, be a Student.

Open your teachability index. Just for the next 90 minutes

You won't find any teachings on morality in hot yoga. No religion, no chanting, no praying. We are not going to tell you what is best for you outside the hot yoga room.

In hot yoga, we are simply asking that you do what you said you wanted when you came in: hot 26 yoga.

Because after all, you paid good money for this hot yoga class.

You are also spending your valuable time, 90 minutes or more, in this class.

You have chosen hot yoga over any other activity you could be doing right now.

It just makes good sense to be 100% teachable. Make this deal with yourself everytime you come to hot yoga: "For the next 90 minutes,  I will let this teacher teach me."

Before we raise the heat, raise the thermostat on your Teachability Index as high as possible.

You may not find Nirvana in every hot yoga class…but you're getting warmer.