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Anastasia Magdalene
How long have you been practicing: Since November 2004
When and where did you do yourTeacher Training: Spring 2006, Los Angeles
What do you heart about the yoga: I love the way Bikram Yoga makes me feel happy, energized and healthy. I didn’t love the heat at first, but now I need to sweat everyday.
What do you heart about teaching: I love watching the change in people. Lots of beginners think they will never be able to do Bikram yoga and then figure out that they can do it and are doing it. That’s the most amazing process to watch. Its never too late, never too old, never too sick to start from scratch again.
Any miracles: All of my chronic back pain is completely gone. The clicking in my hips that had been there since I was a child just disappeared last week after over five years of practice. I can’t wait to see what’s next!
Ida Ripley
A.K.A: Super Raw Yogi Princess
How long have you been practicing: I took my first Bikram Yoga class in August of 2000!
When and where did you do your Teacher Training: I did my Teacher Training at Bikram's world headquarters in Los Angeles in the spring of 2003
What do you heart about the yoga: I heart the comfort and reliability of 26 and 2 to never ever be the same twice. Ever.
What do you heart about teaching: I heart the look on a student's face when he or she goes beyond her pre-conceived notion of what she though was possible and does something she never thought she'd do. Seriously, the BEST JOB EVER.
Any miracles: I know it sounds cheesy, but everyday in the yoga room is a miracle-it's almost everyday I have to stop myself from crying for the gratitude I feel to have this practice a part of my life, and to be part of the global Bikram Yoga family!
Abbey Lee
How long have you been practicing: Since 2000
When and where did you do your Teacher Training: Fall 2003, Los Angeles, CA
What do you heart about the yoga: Knowing that even on the days when I feel like I don't heart the yoga, it's still hearts me!
What do you heart about teaching: The community of dedicated yogis and yoginis at Bikram Yoga Saanich -- you've all helped make the studio such a happy, sweaty home!
Eddie
Eddie started his Bikram practice at the end of 2008 while attending teacher's college in New Zealand. Very quickly did he realize its potential to keep his mind focused and still. Not only that but, he finally learned how to breathe. After
teacher's college Eddie became a fixture in the Bikram Yoga community in Toronto by working behind the desk at his local studio and competing for Eastern Canada at the 2010 International Yoga Asana Championships. He attended the Spring 2010 Teacher Training in Las Vegas and soon left for New Zealand to teach at the studio where he took his first classes. Attending seminars and lectures by senior teachers and previous world champions keeps Eddie inspired as he considers himself always a student first. Since coming back from teaching overseas, Eddie has placed in the Top 10 at the 2011 Yoga Asana Championships and has worked closely with Bikram as a staff member at his teacher trainings. Eddiewishes to share what he was taught in the spring of 2010 and inspire others to realize that anything is possible as long as you breathe and put your mind to it.
Owl
How long have you been practicing: I took my first class in March 2004, and started practising regularly perhaps six months after that.
When and where did you do your Teacher Training: Waikiki, HI, 2007
What do you heart about the yoga: The yoga continues to reveal to me new aspects of myself: body, mind, and heart. Through my practise I experience and negotiate my own strength, focus, beauty, and compassion, and I value these things as a human being in the world.
What do you heart about teaching: Teaching is similar to practising in that it allows me to experience a kind of personal authenticity that is directly linked to practising compassion. It moves me to see people grapple with themselves as they practise. To witness their different responses to the hot room is to have a private view of a very personal dynamic going on within people. It's a privilege to see. What begins to emerge in people is a pattern of willingness, perseverance, and commitment, and what falls away is pain, self-loathing, and the blinders that separate us from each other.
Any miracles: Through the yoga I have corrected a scoliosis, chronic pain, and other spinal problems, as well as found relief from migraines and anxiety, but I don't perceive these changes as miracles. They are simply the results of learning and practising what Bikram calls the five aspects of mind: concentration, determination, self-control, faith, and patience.
Lauren
How long have you been practicing: Started in 2000, took my naughty middle daughter [Abbey] to her first class. The rest is history.
When and where did you do your Teacher Training:
What do you heart about the yoga: I heart the consistency of the bikram series the postures never have to change because the body is constantly being change by the postures.
What do you heart about teaching: The opportunity to expose everyone to the benefits of Bikram yoga, encouraging and empowering people to take responsibility for their own health and happiness.
Any miracles: I am with Albert Einstein... “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Kimiko
My name is Kimiko Foster, I took my first Bikram yoga class in Jan 2009 and began a regular practice the following September. For me, change happened fast. In the first four months of practice I saw dramatic changes in my body, practice, and mentality. 90 minutes inside a hot room changed how I lived my life for the other 22.5 hours of the day. I was happier, healthier, and a better
person.
I became a teacher so I could share this experience with others. Its a hard practice, no doubt, but I feel it represents a true commitment to your health. Taking 90minutes today, for your own benefit tomorrow, thats preventative medicine baby!
It is by far the most fulfilling job on this planet! I heart bikram yoga.
Niecia
How long have you been practicing: I was introduced to Bikram Yoga in 2003, but only began a steady practice in February 2007.
When and where did you do your Teacher Training: Palm Springs, Spring 2009!
What do you heart about the yoga: The fact that sweating in that room for 90 minutes can so clearly highlight what is most important and vital in your life, and bring about every type of change necessary.
What do you heart about teaching: Beginners! Most of them are fearless and totally in the moment. It's humbling to watch.
Any miracles: The more my students come to class, the more they smile when they come through the door. It's in the little things.
Christine
My first yoga class ever happened to be a Bikram yoga class and it happened to take place at Bikram Yoga Saanich (what better place to start?!). That was in the fall of 2008. For the next year or so
I came up with many excuses, none of them very good, on how to avoid going into the hot room. Because of this general laziness on my part, my regularpractice didn't start until January 2010 when I decided enough was enough, so I dove right in with a 60 day challenge. Just a few days into that challenge I knew without a doubt, that eventually, or in the future, I wanted to become a Bikram Yoga teacher.
I completed my Teacher Training in Los Angeles in the Fall of 2011 and it was the most indescribably incredible experience in my life. I started Bikram yoga for the physicalbenefits, but it didn't take long for the mental and emotional benefits to become visible to me. I don't know what I would do without this practice in my life, I'd probably be either a hermit, or have several dozen cats with rhyming names.
There are too many reasons to list here why I love teaching, they are all good ones I promise; ask me about it sometime. Always remember, you're never too old, never too sick, never too bad, never too late, to start from scratch and begin again.
Laurel
How long have you been practicing: Practicing 4 1/2 years
When and where did you do your Teacher Training: TT Hawaii Spring 2007
What do you heart about the yoga: Love the yoga because it is the same and different every day. After 4 1/2 years it is still some crazy new experience either physically, emotionally or mentally. It is truly seems to feel like something that you can do forever and yet feel that you can never master.
What do you heart about teaching: The students of course. Their determination, grace and willingness to stick with it, because sometimes it can seem like it is not fun. They have the ability to put a physically or mentally challenging class behind them and come back tomorrow. They constantly rise the challenge of looking in the mirror and making that connection with themselves, often the most difficult part of the class.
