an open letter to Bikram

Dear Mr. Bikram,

I'm sure you've received many letters like this in the course of your teaching. I hate to hate Bikram yoga like I do & I thought it might help alleviate some of my guilt if I wrote you about my experience.

I think your series of yoga poses (shown above) look very easy. In fact, I think I would even ENJOY doing them in a warm room... but the 100+F degrees is a bit much, don't you think?

I have a cold so I figured I should intentionally raise my heat before a fever kicked in to do it for me, so I went last night. I really want to like it. I really did not want to almost puke & have to leave in the middle of the standing series. The teacher & her English accent were so cute... but her screaming was not. Do you teach your instructors to YELL such things like "until your back hurts, elbows hurt, knees hurt, LOCK THE KNEES" Where's the nurture? All that screaming is just waaaay to intense for me. I like my yoga classes encouraging... but not encouraging me to hurt myself. Now I know you've taught for decades to my few years, but I do think that willingly hurting oneself is very far removed from where I - and most of western society - need to be. Lastly, her comment at the end of the class about how it's normal to feel nauseated & dizzy... and how it teaches discipline & determination... I dunno about that either. I learn plenty of discipline and determination trying to make myself sit still. So I'm left considering that maybe I'm just not tough enough, and maybe it gets easier... or maybe I was just too sick for Bikram class... Though I will say, that I thought it was pretty cool in standing forward bend to observe my knees sweating.

Thank you to you & your trained drill sergeant teachers.

Respectfully,
c.