Peggy Preston
Peggy having a yarn
I attended my first Bikram class in 1999. I had heard of Bikram from my Mom, who had gone to his classes in 1986. She raved about him. I remember how radiant she looked. She had done double classes for just one week but the difference was huge. I went to LA in 1998 wanting to meet Bikram. I loved it. He pointed me out in class and said, “I like you. You’re very still.” Of course, it made me happy. I felt I had an instant love for the yoga and Bikram. I was hooked. It was a class that was strong and moved like dance through my body from one posture to the next.
It was an instant love affair with what made me feel good and what I knew was intrinsically correct for the human body and mind.
Yoga’s basic alignment principles have been very powerful in my own body and the philosophy that defines the practice has been so appreciated and needed for my mind and spirit.
Everything started to make sense with my practice, the cleansing, balancing, strengthening and lengthening of my body. When the body is healthy, the mind can follow. Then our devotion and truth unfolds naturally regardless of the religion. It made so much sense to me.
The Bikram training was an intense 10 week training that started at 6am and often finished well over midnight. Bikram doesn’t sleep and didn’t expect us to as well. It was a seemingly total deconstruction of my body and as I was to find out, my mind. The aches and pains were very intense and the suffering seemed unbearable. We practiced asana over 4 hours a day in a very hot sweaty room and then had classes all day in between. I became stiffer and and every injury I had ever suffered came to the surface and quite honestly, scared me to death. I had one thing that saved me, total faith in the yoga and Bikram.
