Bikram Yoga El Paseo

A lot of peeps are weighing in these days about the recent legal developments of Bikram Choudhury, creator of Bikram Yoga ~ The original 26/2 hot yoga that took not only this country by storm but spread like wildfire internationally.

As a studio owner, I’m in the eye of the storm. With the Chaos swirling around me, “I’m keeping calm and Carrying OHM.”

Just today  I had one student with discuss ask me my thoughts about Bikram Choudhury. He felt “dirty” practicing the Bikram series.  Ironically about 10 minutes later a second student approached me about doing a group road trip to TAKE  Bikram Choudhury’s Saturday class at Headquarters in LA.   YES, she actually wanted to be in a room with him.   A third student overheard her request and chimed in , “Can’t you get Bikram to come HERE and teach a class, how awesome would that be.”

Opposite opinions working out together in the hot room.

I remember my first teacher saying that being in a Bikram Class levels out the playing field. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, what car you drive or where you live. Gender, Age and Physical stature are unimportant. Opinions / Judgements are all non existent . When you are all down in the trenches sweating it out together you are equal.

Bikram Choudhury singled out 26 highly therapeutic postures within the greater 84 yoga asanas to give the practitioner the greatest medicinal benefits . He then placed these asanas in a specific order so one leads into the next and systematically compresses and releases muscles, organs and glands so they are renewed at a cellular,molecular level. This method coupled with the heat element allows for a complete flushing of toxins as well.

Personally,  the series healed my spine and gave me my life back after  suffering  for a full year in extreme pain.  I’m healthier and in better shape now than I was in my late 30’s.   I began Bikram Yoga after exhausting every other non invasive natural healing method.

After a MRI disclosed a herniated disc, I was told I would most likely need surgery but cortisone would temporarily stave off the pain.

I never had surgery. I never had a single cortisone injection. I never needed any invasive medical treatments due to a particular healing yoga formally named BIKRAM YOGA!

So here’s my opinion for what its worth:

I would be foolish to cut off my nose and spite my face by stopping the therapy that not only saved my spine and gave me my life back, but also delivered numerous other health benefits. The list is endless, but to name a few biggies: Weight control, Clear skin and Non existent menopausal symptoms.

I wont stop PRACTICING the TRUE Bikram Yoga series EVER. I definitely wont stop teaching or spreading the word of the pure Bikram Series tremendous benefits any time soon. The watered down versions are individual and non standardized and lose the true prescription.

Should I change our studio Signage and remove the Bikram Name?

The signs could read Ann Marie Yoga!  Maybe Palma Yoga……..does that sound better??    Haute Hatha??   Namaste` Yoga??   B Hot yoga (If I keep the B maybe peeps will know it’s  REALLY Bikram Yoga.)

What do you think??  I think that at the end of the day,  you can’t rewrite history. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Bikram Choudhury created Bikram Yoga.

There are so many studios altering the Bikram Method that a day doesn’t go by with diehards calling me to make sure if they come to our school they will be getting the  full  90 min original class.

Should we practice the Bikram series because it works but call it something else to appease the peeps that have attached themselves to the chaos and feel “dirty?”

Should we pretend that someone else invented it so we feel politically correct practicing it?

Should we live our lives under the guise that Bikram Choudhury’s fall from grace has anything to do with the pure Bikram Yoga method that he created before fortune and fame?

Bikram Choudhury is responsible for Bikram Choudhury. Only Bikram himself knows the truths from the lies.  He and He alone needs to be accountable and responsible for any wrong doing.  Any copy cat versions of lawsuits will have to be scrutinized individually.

Regardless the multitude of controversy that swirls around HIM, I refuse to get caught up in the storm. This is HIS issue, HIS concern, HIS shit. (Sorry, can I say that word in my blog???)

During training he taught me a valuable inner strength:

He guaranteed us that coming out of Teacher Training we would be bullet proof……that no one could steal our peace!

Well guess what? Amidst all his Shenanigans and legal woes,  even he cannot steal my peace. My focus is strictly on the integrity of the Bikram Yoga Series of therapeutic asanas.

The hot room is my sanctuary, my therapy, my life, and while I am saddened by the ongoing legal saga of Bikram Choudhury’s personal life, I am grateful for the invention of the series during more innocent times.

I do not support “the brand,” financially.  Bikram Choudhury’s attorneys failed to legally organize a franchise, so there are no branding fee’s affiliated with ANY  Bikram School. We pay no royalties of any kind.  Students practicing at our studio, Bikram Yoga Palm Desert- EL Paseo are not supporting Bikram Choudhury they are supporting our studio and our yoga community!

There are some people that didn’t even know Bikram Yoga was named after a real person, they thought it was a generic term like Vinyasa.

“Eventually, in the future”….. when the dust settles and it will  Bikram Yoga will probably be just that: A generic term to indicate a  SPECIFIC  hot yoga series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises.

In the meantime I’ll be in the hot room finishing my 30 day challenge, feeling stronger and healthier than ever and keeping calm while I carry OHM!!!!

NAMASTE`