Wahe Guru
by neonconfidential
“It is not how good, how spiritual you look, or how wonderful you appear. It is what is inside that matters.” ~ Yogi Bhajan
Wahe Guru literally translates as the “wonderful enlightener”.
This past month marks the 3 year anniversary of my yoga journey. My first venture into yoga began while I was living in London. My best friend introduced me to Bikram yoga, and before I knew it I found myself in a 38C plus room, inches away from half naked strangers, sweating from places I never knew sweat could pour from. It wasn’t attractive, and didn’t smell good. Yet, I kept going back, repeating the same 26 poses every time, because it felt so darn euphoric.
The irony of all of this is Bikram yoga isn’t cheap, nor is living in London, and should I have wanted to go 3 times a week, which I roughly did, I would have been paying £145, which in Canadian $ would have translated to $319 for a monthly unlimited yoga pass. That is 3 times the amount of what a monthly yoga pass is in North America. So, i did the most un-Zen thing you could do. I scammed them. You see, they offered a monthly “deal” for “new” students, in which you could pay £30 (equivalent to $66 Cdn) for 1 month of unlimited yoga. Now that’s more like a deal! I would sign up under various aliases, and made sure to do so by rotation at all 3 studio locations. After awhile, I surely lost track of who I was when I signed up for the “first time” for the fifth time. I am not proud of this, rather quite ashamed that I went to all this trouble to go to yoga, only to defeat all my moral standing with lies.
Shakey ground to begin what is suppose to be a grounding practice. I eventually left London for good, and with it Bikram yoga. I re-encountered a different yoga practice when I was visiting family in Hong Kong. My cousin introduced me to who I would like to call my first yoga teacher, Tiana Hariela who taught at the Mandarin Oriental Landmark. There, I went to my first Ashtanga yoga class, and discovered that real heat in yoga isn’t generated from being in an unnaturally hot sauna. It comes from the breath and pranayama, a term that refers to deep breathing. From there, I learned that true strength is built slowly over time, and flexibility isn’t overly twisting relaxed muscles into a pretzel. Conversely, the results isn’t just relinquished water weight, what’s left is a more profound and enduring strength.
Tiana’s class was the first of many yoga classes in the last 3 years, including power, hatha, kundalini and yin to name a few. Since then, I have moved back to the city I was born in, and have transitioned through many changes. The one constant in my life has been yoga. It has kept me sane when everything else around me seemed to crumble.
I started yoga because I wanted a workout, but continue with it as a lifestyle because the balance I learn from the mat translates directly into my life. Whether I am having a good or bad week, when I bring myself back to the mat, it’s as if I have pressed the re-set button back to center. I always leave yoga with what I describe as a “shiny happy” feeling. It’s true, next time you’re at your local yoga studio, take a look around, everyone seems to be bathed in a little bit of radiance.
Namaste.
“When I bring myself back to the mat, it’s as if I have pressed the re-set button back to center.” This phrase really echoes with me. I just sat down at a cafe and wrote in my yoga journal what yoga means to me now. (I asked myself the same question 3 years ago) and one word that kept repeating was “connection”. Yoga connects me to the bigger picture, to the greater awareness of what’s truly important to me. It gives me clarity. Thanks for sharing your post and hopefully I will see you in a Kundalini class one of these days.
With love,
Josie
It’s a pretty amazing adventure. I fully agree with your sentiments about “connection”. I think it only gets better and brighter. I will certainly see you at Kundalini soon Josie!
I sort of love that you ‘begged, borrowed, and stole’ your way into London’s pricey Bickram Yoga classes.
I love your blog too.