Friday, January 22, 2010

Thoughts on Yoga

I am not “trendy.” 

I don’t like to follow the crowd, and I avoid fads/crazes/manias like the plague. (Not that I’m about to dye my hair blue or go Rebel Without A Cause on you or anything…) BUT, I never hopped on the Atkins bandwagon, bought crocs, explored raw foods, or looked into Scientology. (I think this fad-phobia is part of where my mistrust of cupcakes comes from...)

I’m not contrary for the sake of contrariness though. I’m ok with doing the “follow the crowd” thing if it’s something I actually like (e.g. skinny jeans – what can I say? I have runner legs!). But I try to be cautious and make sure that I really do like something before I join the masses.  

All of this is a very round-about way for me to reveal to you all that it’s been 4 days of early-morning classes, and I like Bikram yoga. I mean actually, truly enjoy it. I hate to admit this, but it does get my day started in an energizing way. My body does feel better as I sit at my desk at work. I am calmer and more balanced. I should feel sleep-deprived and cranky to the max (yoga starts at 6:15am…I can’t seem to get to bed before midnight…you do the math), but I don’t.

Yoga is like the epitome of trendy. It went from granola-eating-hippie to new-age-soccer-mom pretty quickly, and since it’s hit the main stream, it seems to get more popular by the day.  Damn. And now I know why.

The only bad thing about this is that it proves that all those self-righteous yoga-lovers I’ve been hating on for the last 5 years (since the yoga-craze began) were kind of sort of right all along. (There, I said it.)

I don’t know if I will continue with the Bikram thing after my week trial is over (Monday). Mostly because I don’t want to pay for it…but I am putting myself out there for all internet-users to read - I  admit that I like it.

And I’m recommending it! Check out the Bikram studios near you and see if you can go a cheap/free trial…

And read this article about Bikram...interesting...any thoughts? Is Bikram "McYoga"?