Heat it. Heal it. Write it.
Hot yoga is alchemy.
Alchemy: the Medieval science of changing ordinary metals into gold, a power or process that transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way
Not coincidentally, it often required high heat.
Writing is that same process: one part you, preferably heated, and one part magic. Writing, like hot yoga. scratches the surface of your experiences and gets down underneath. Writing makes wisdom from words; it just takes a pen to draw you out and like hot yoga, you start from where you are, right now.
What happens when you add writing to hot yoga?
Our Teacher Trainees keep journals of their every hot yoga class, three times per week throughout five months of Teacher Training. I think it's a hot idea for everyone. Want to boost your hot yoga benefits? Write about it. Want more? Share your thoughts with others. Here's how it works...
The seemingly small experiences you have in each hot yoga class are always worth more than you think. Never underestimate the day of small things.
When you write, you never know what will come out. You may think you're going to write about that hard Trikonasana pose today, and suddenly you're writing about that time in fifth grade when you stood up to the school bully. In in the end, it all creates a beautiful story, a deliberate trail from where you begin, through all the inroads of all your AHA moments of self discovery, and finally, all the way to your own enlightenment.
Gems from a Hot Yoga Journal:
"Today in yoga class, after a particularly challenging floor bow, I turned my head to the left to relish in my Savasana...
There I found, in tiny blue print on my SmartWater bottle, the message:
Enjoy the inside. Recycle the outside.
While I knew they were referring to the water and bottle...it struck me in a really grand, magical way.
It's just like LIFE! Enjoy the inside - the feelings, the joy, the higher vibrations, the celebrations, the present-moment-magic...
And recycle the outside - the circumstances, the ephemerality of your outward desires...
The outside circumstances change, or are recycled (in a cycle) all the time - you move, change jobs, get married, have kids, your kids grow up and move out or go to college...there's a million, zillion changes in everyone's day-to-day, whether they realize it or not.
But none of that has to change how you enjoy the INSIDE. You can feel joy having a baby. You can feel the same joy when your daughter graduates college or wins an award or goes on an awesome, life-changing trip...
And all our outward desires - the things and circumstances that have bewitched our eyes and hearts - are really outer projections of vibrational states that we can create and experience in any moment.
Knowing this means two things: You can settle in the bedrock of joy inside yourself...and even enjoy your outer circumstance to the fullest, without fear or regret or anxiety or worry...
And from yet another Hot Yoga Journal:
I reached a part of me this morning that was new to me. It was deep and vast, and a complete surprise.
I saw inside of myself something old that was always there and I just now got it. Sometimes I feel like my Pranayama breathing is just the best part of my day. I clean out my whole body with my breathing, as if I am detoxing. Today in class, I felt 100 percent grounded like I have never felt before. So sure of myself, so confident that everything is exactly as it should be at this very moment. And I was so incredibly hot and sweaty like never before, almost irritatingly so, and once I started breathing and going inside of myself for a minute, it all gave. I almost felt the snap. Relief. I smiled. No forcing, no pushing. I’ve got this. I am healing, getting strong, growing more flexible, and settling in to myself at last. I didn’t ask what took so damn long. I just was sending out gratitude all over the place. My own acceptance.
My own appreciation and forgiveness. My own love. I’ve got this.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (5)
I have always been very guarded in the things I say to people and who I let in to what I am feeling. I don't like to feel vulnerable in other peoples eyes. During the short time thus far in teacher training, journaling has not only awakened my yoga practice but also awaken me again. The real me. The person who doesn't care what people think and is putting out there what I am feeling. Yes right now it is just "on paper" but in the coming months it will also be in voice and not just about yoga. I have opened my blog/journal out to not only fellow Teacher Trainees but also to family/friends and other fellow yogi's and the response has been great.
Your comment brought tears to my eyes, Gabby. It is so beautiful to see a soul willing to open. Know that this is ALL anyone ever wants: the REAL you. And that is the gift you have to give. Hiding is playing small and serves no one, especially yourself. Life responds when we risk and the real risk is not being vulnerable; the real risk is living an entire life in hiding. Think of the YouTube video we watched at our first meeting from Nike, called Birth To Death in 60 Seconds....watch it again. It is a great reminder of going through life closed and fearful (another word for vulnerable). You are open!
I never really thought of journaling or writing anything after yoga. I just did yoga and left. Now that I am tasked with having to journal after ever class, I honestly enjoy it. So much so that I actually share my posts with friends and coworkers who also enjoy my posts. What I love most NOW even in this short time is to go back and re-read/re-live the classes I've taken so far since teacher training and feel those emotions come back. It's all good!
A famous writer (of course) said, "A life not written is a life not lived." To this I would add, sharing your writing is proof that you were here. For so many years - since I was about 10 years old! - I kept books and books of journals I shared with no one. When I started blogging, I made a squeak. Now I am writing my first book.
“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege...”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing
and - “Do you wait for things to happen, or do you make them happen yourself? I believe in writing your own story.”
― Charlotte Eriksson
and finally, my favorite: "“If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered.”
― Stephen King
I love that journaling is required of us in this TT! Its wonderful to look within then put it all down. Its cool how I start out with a topic and it goes around the block and ends up being about something altogether different. It is a way to validate who I am and what I feel, to myself and to be ok with sharing it with those in our yoga community. In opening up here, I've noticed that I've been more comfortable in my own skin, more easily able to just be me, to speak my mind etc. I also credit that to just doing what I love just for me. Its all growth. I hadnt thought of sharing it outside of this circle. I dont think I know how to, (technically).