JIll's 1-Year Bikram Anniversary

So when I first met my girlfriend in October 2006, I had just started doing Bikram Yoga. I was still working to lose another 20-25 pounds before my plastic surgery and while I can't say I loved it right away, I loved to hate it. Or something.

I rattled on about it on dates with her and told her how amazing and hard and cool it was. She said, "Thanks, but no thanks" and stuck to running and pilates, and 'regular' yoga. I resolved that we'd just tell each other about our respective exercises, and not overlap...

Then came my plastics that December and I struggled to get back to the Bikram until that following September, 2007 - about a year after my first class. At this point I got hooked and was "in" - Jill, however, still was not. She had no need to go into a hot room like that, she hated heat.

One of my most impactful Bikram teachers was Saiko - especially in the beginning - she and a couple others "raised" me at the Fremont studio. One night I learned that she was also certified to teach Power Vinyasa (she studied with Brian Kest) which is also heated - but technically, "not as hot." I tried it, because I trusted that if Saiko taught it, it would be good...and it was. So somehow, after a longtime of convincing, I got Jill to go to Power classes with me. To me, they were just as hot as a Bikram class, but she was not willing to try Bikram.

Then, last year, in January 2008, we were in NYC and I was going to go to a class there. Jill brought her stuff along and ended up coming along for class at the Lower East Side Bikram studio. Earlier in the day we went to find it and ran into the owner, who said, "That'll be a great class - John is teaching, he's amazing. " We got there, and the teacher was John Salvatore, a Broadway actor/singer, and a flippin' hoot. Jill did great! There were two other new people who had to leave the room and struggled a lot (it was humid, way more than we're used to). According to my post on my normal blog, "it was brutal and amazing all at once. Jill did great, though I nearly died. :)"

Today we celebrated her 1-year anniversary of that first class. Looking back, she commented "Wow, to think back then you hadn't even thought about going to training...and now, here a year later, you're a Bikram Yoga teacher!" And, I thought, "Yeah, and you, who wouldn't even go - now you're regular and half the time, dragging me to class!"

Here she is, a year later, with a dedicated practice 4x/week minimum (usually maximum, too :). She has a killer backbend, camel and rabbit for that matter. She has conquered her anxiety of going into the hot room, which was huge in the beginning. Now, she has the same anxiety/stress we all have about getting to class due to logistics, tiredness or whatever else is going on in life. She said, "it's like going to the chiropractor, getting a massage, exercising and meditating and I get it all done in the same 90 minutes." Like most of us, she gets excited about getting props on postures that are hard for her...and wants corrections so she can get better. When she takes my class, she's always one of the strongest practices in the room.

Needless to say, I'm proud of her! I love when we go to class together - whether we practice together side by side or not, I love that she's in the room. She understands me, my practice, my teaching in a way that never could've been possible without her own practice and dedication to it.

Sadly, I was not able to practice with her today - and though it bummed me out, I thought about the fact that yoga is a personal journey. While you practice in a room with other people, the experience itself, once your toes and heels are touching and toes on the line, is all yours. So that she practiced alone today was fitting, in a way, because her yoga is hers. It's not about 'us' but I think we both really love that we share a love of it, and understand each other's experience of it.

The picture above is one from when she visited me at teacher training in Acapulco in June 2008. There, she did 7 classes in 5 days and got all the hits - Bikram, Emmy, Raj, Craig and Jason Winn...among others.

Big ups to my Jilly! Here's to another year of killer yoga classes and feeling really good about yourself :)