You're good at hot yoga? Too bad.

At Riverflow, we love it when you're bad at hot yoga.

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

I don't know who wrote this poem but isn't it a relief to hear that you don't have to be good? It really speaks to the child in me who still remembers how GOOD it felt to write on the walls with crayons and flush toy trucks down the toilet (I had a very lively childhood).

Aren't you tired of trying to be good at hot yoga?

We love it when you come out of class exhausted, exasperated, and slump into a chair and confess that you just a "bad" hot yoga class.

We know that means you made progress.

Because in order to push past your boundaries, first you have to break down some walls. And  when you're out of your comfort zone, it may seem like you did something bad.

But being "bad" is one of the really "good" things about being alive: it's about expansion. Asking what more there is. Stepping over the divide between what's real and what's imagined.

What's the difference between what you imagine and what is real? Nothing, according to science.

Your brain processes the data you think or imagine in the same way it processes the data you see. What you think is what is.

When you're a child, your boundaries are controlled by adults. Don't touch the hot stove. Don't cross against the light. Stay safe and don't risk. Then, when you're an adult, you put yourself in your own box.

Ah, the adults taught you well.

When you come to hot yoga, we ask that just for the next 90 minutes, you remember how you felt as a child. That feeling of limitless potential. Remember back when nothing was impossible.

We know you have injuries, illnesses, accidents, heartbreaks. We're going to be bold here and ask you to pretend that you don't.

For 90 minutes, don't believe what you usually think about yourself. Let hot yoga do its magic and take you back, beyond your boundaries, where you can see and feel that everything you've been living was created by you in the first place.

Now here's the rub: to find your freedom in hot yoga, you need to follow your Teacher.

All Riverflow hot yoga Teachers take their role seriously, even when they're making jokes during hot yoga class: to be there for you, to guide you outside the box, and let you see your Other self. The Great One. Come along and take a look. Because, let's face it, life inside the box just ain't all that great.

Ignore the voice in your head as it judges and compares your every move in hot yoga. That's precisely why we talk nonstop for 90 minutes in hot yoga class - so you're forced to listen to something other than that mostly discouraging voice inside you.

You call it your Thoughts. We call it the Good You. It acts like it's your friend, telling you things For Your Own Good.  It justifies itself by arguing that it's just keeping you safe; it's being logical; it's wanting you to face reality so you won't be disappointed.

That voice is willing to sacrifice your aliveness in order to keep you barely alive,

You have a mission in hot yoga, should you decide to accept it: follow the Teacher as if she's your roadmap to freedom.

We're not asking you to give up all your worldly possessions at the feet of  your Riverflow hot yoga Teacher. Just submit for a little while -after all, you paid for this class, why not get your money's worth?  - and trust us to take you to a place you haven't been in awhile : your heart.

Doing "good" in hot yoga  will keep you comfortable. And that's bad news. Your comfort zone is where you  zone out and miss your chance at Greatness.

Good is the enemy of Great. You have to let go of Good if you want to be Great.

Do each hot yoga class aiming for Greatness. That doesn't mean you have to do each pose perfectly. That, by the way, only proves that you're good at hot yoga.

Acting Great is about giving it all your effort, every ounce you've got, listening to your teacher and following her directions. Yes, you will look different from that Gumby beside you. That's what makes this YOUR hot yoga class.

Tell your teacher about your injuries and unburden yourself from the weight of those old, limited ideas about your body, your life and your potential. Cross the threshold into the hot yoga room and you're instantly set free, to  have a completely new experience of your body, and your possibilities.

Isn't that Great?

Comments

[AlexS]

Love that poem at the beginning. When I first started practicing I felt so insecure on the mat. My brain would say things like "AHH, I can't do this." "How on earth am I going to teach this if I can't even hold a pose right." Needless to say, by the end of class I usually would be in tears during savasana lying in that dark place of self doubt. I wanted to crumble into my mat out of fear. What makes a person just as effective is the ability to bend. The ability to laugh when they fall out of a pose and listen and let it all in and maybe having that comfort zone and fear is all the more reason to push yourself. Thanks for posting this, Rhonda.