Bikram Choudhury:

“This yoga worse than cocaine. Because you can get rid of cocaine, but once you used to this yoga, you can’t stop. Because nothing in this world makes you feel better than this yoga.”

Bikram Choudhury:

“I try to kill them. They don’t die. I own– I torture them.I love it.”

Bikram Choudhury:

“I implant my mind in your brain. Yes. My way or highway. You don’t like it? Get the fuck out of here.”

Bikram Choudhury:

“I cure Parkinson’s disease, AIDS, cancer. Doctor knows very little about human body.”

Andrea Kremer (from HBO interview):

“You know more than doctors?”

Bikram Choudhury:

“Million times, billion times. I teach doctors. I don’t go to doctors. Every doctor in the world, they come to me.”

Since July 4th of this year my hubsand, Jay, and I have been discovering the joys of Bikram Yoga in Harlem. It’s a room filled with sweaty, exhausted, barely clad men and women. Some days it feels hotter than others but it is supposed to be kept between 95–108 °F with a humidity of 40% for 90 minutes.

It is the bravest thing I do. Period.

It works for me. I am not here to tell you it works for everybody. Certainly not.

The more I go —the more I want to go.

The more I go —the better I feel.

The more I go —the more enthusiasm I have for everything on my plate.

There’s an interesting article out today at Artsy.net on Artists and Exercise. It references famous artists throughout time who claim that their creativity is enhanced with exercise.

No kidding. Getting up and moving is the best thing I can do for my art. Every time I move I allow ideas to percolate up to the surface that were hidden in my unconscious thoughts.

We moved across Manhattan last June and Jay’s doctor laid down the law to absolutely no more running. Never mind that the wife mate had been saying this for a decade. That’s another story. No one was more surprised than me when Jay suggested we go over to the Harlem Yoga Studio in our new neighborhood. I have been practicing yoga in its various forms since 2000 and had avoided the hot stuff. Of course I said yes.

By the time we arrived for our first session I was giddy. That did not last long. It seems when you first start that all that heat and stretching generates the passing of awful body toxins. What I began to realize is how awfully hard we are on this precious human form we occupy. All that drinking, all those fries, cokes, fat in our system just cannot compete with Bikram Yoga.

I have no idea if this post will spur you on to try a class. That’s not important. However, developing an awareness for taking care of our precious ecosystem is the most important message I can relay today.

Happy creating!

XO Rebecca