World of Boris: February 2013

It's been more than 7 years since I started practicing Bikram yoga. I remember vividly when I went first time to the yoga studio on December 13th, 2005. I expected half naked sweaty people and environment full of sexual energy. I thought that I would "check out all attractive women" in the class.
Hahaha!
What was I thinking about?? Well, it didn't take long time for other thoughts to kick in. Actually, a real survival mode was triggered, and after less then 5 minutes I didn't see all these attractive women, I didn't care about these women, it didn't matter that they were in front me, stretching and showing amazing form of their bodies. I wanted to survive and my body was surviving. I lost count of poses, and it didn't matter anymore if there were 15, 20 or 26 of them. I was wondering if the hell was as hot as the practice room.

Well, I did survive it, and I actually stayed inside of the room for whole 90 minutes. I even didn't miss any of 26 poses that comprise Bikram yoga practice. I even came back 4 times in next 6 days and after that, I was "officially" hooked up to Bikram yoga. Ever since that cold December day I haven't looked back and I continued to practice it. I must express my big thanks to two wonderful girls who took me to yoga on that December 13th, Elisabeth and Kamila.

I've gained amazing benefits from the practice. It helped me both, physically and mentally. It helped me maintain my flexibility, strength and enabled me to become tougher. So many times I hit the wall, but then, I would still prevail by staying in the room and continuing practice, and usually, there would be a second wind and I would be triumphant at the end.

It taught me to hang on 20 seconds longer, 30 seconds longer, even when pain was unbearable. There were moments when I wasn't able to decrease my heart beat, and there were moments as I was in a death zone on Shishapangma, when I was grasping for air. But I would still continue doing it. I learned that I can do anything that lasts 20 seconds, even 30, 40, or 60 seconds. Why wouldn't I be able to do it? It taught me not to quit, not to resign. It eliminated the "give up" switch from my brain, and I didn't have choice anymore - only choice was to be there and do it.
This helped me so much in running and free style skiing. Every time when I was hitting the wall, during fast cross-country races during big hill climbs, when my heart was almost exploding, I would still continue, and I never quit any race, and I never stopped running in any race, not for even 3 seconds, since 2005. It somehow refreshed my internal toughness routines, and it seemed that I didn't recognize pain.
It helped me stop that burning sensation in my thighs and quads while competing in Mountain Smoker ski race. My legs were certainly complaining about it, but I was not quitting and I was not slowing down.

It brought awareness about my own power and how much I can do with my own body. It helped me understand myself better.

Through the years I invited some of my friends to the practice, and majority of them came couple of times but they were not persistent and they never reaped the benefits of Bikram yoga. I was happy that they would come, at least once, as I was sharing something new and different with them. I also knew that they knew what was working best for them. I still wish that they continued it.

Gyula and yoga

For years I was trying to convince my friend Gyula, to join me in practicing Bikram yoga. We've shared a long history of unprecedented adventures, and I was craving to see him sweat and "suffer" during yoga practice, and actually conquer it at the end.
I talked lot about it. I demonstrated some of the poses. I challenged him by questioning his toughness:" My friend, you say that you are tough. Well, if you are so tough, you'll come with me. Let's find out how tough you are". :)
Gyula didn't listen anything I was telling him. He wouldn't go with me to Bikram yoga. In my mind that was OK, as I was old enough now to know that people were different and that all of us had our own ways of finding our "green azure".
And then some events that occurred in late 2010 and early 2011 practically made my friend Gyula to start experiencing Bikram yoga. He started going to practices!! I didn't go with him as I was injured at the time, but we would talk about it on a daily basis, and he was sharing with me his "awesome" experiences. It seemed that Gyula was now hooked up to yoga. He wouldn't miss a practice and he was one of few who was doing so called "doubles" (two practices in a row). He even did a "challenge", but not the normal challenge of 30 days, he did 90 days in a row!!! That was totally amazing. I was happy for him that he was able to find new avenues for himself and that he was able to unleash his powers that were buried for many years. Gyula was certainly inspirational before his yoga immersion, but now he's been ueber inspirational.

This is the point where I am going to state why I am writing this post. Perhaps my "introduction" was a bit too long :)

Just last week Ada and I attended 3rd Alberta Bikram Yoga Championship in which Gyula participated. He actually competed on a provincial level with so many young guns. That was something that I didn't expect, and if someone told me in 2010 that Gyula would be competing in yoga, I would say that they were crazy.

As a picture is worth thousands of words, you can see some of action during the championships. Of course you can see my friend Gyula.