I started practicing Bikram Yoga towards the end of 2000. A friend suggested I try it out as she knew that I was attending the gym 3 to 5 times a week and had just started Pilates. She thought that I may enjoy the challenge (and the girl to guy ratio), yeah sure after all this is yoga, right? I had some injuries that I acquired whilst playing many years of competitive soccer and eventually had to stop playing the game that I had participated in since childhood and boy did my ego take a battering when I was told my ankles could no longer stand up to the rigors of playing at a high level. The pain was so bad that the weight of a doona on my feet used to wake me at night, I used to collapse on the floor sometimes as my ankles gave way from beneath me and it would be several minutes before I could get up again. I felt sad that my body was failing me after years of feeling strong and fit. As I was a carpenter in the building industry, climbing a ladder to walk around on a roof was quickly becoming a health hazard.

Instead of playing for a lower division I decided to stop altogether. I then spent more time at the gym and enjoyed the pumped feeling of bulky muscles.

Just before starting Bikram Yoga I had gone through a separation, was unhappy in my building job and looking for something more to life. Being single again also meant that I had extra time to indulge and found myself on the party circuit once more. I knew that I could not continue and whilst fulfilling my wants I found myself searching for what I needed in all the wrong places. I wasn’t happy with the bloke I saw looking back at me in the mirror.

All that changed upon stepping into my very first Bikram yoga class at Brookvale in Sydney.

My first class I thought I was going to die and couldn’t understand how yoga could be so hard and how everyone else, particularly the elderly lady in the front row, seemed to be coping much better than me and I considered myself relatively fit. My old self did actually die on that day. I had found exactly what I needed.

I went home after that first class and slept so well, something that had eluded me for some time. I woke the next day and made sure I was back in the hot room, even though it was almost an hour from home. I simply wanted more of that good feeling and continued to practice for 18 months. My old injuries disappeared although at times the pain in my knees and ankles were quite hard to bear.

Then I had a job offer which meant that I was required to move to Queensland but unfortunately there was a downside, I was moving away from the studio and to a city where one didn’t exist. What was I to do?  My teacher told me that there was a recording available of a class taught by Bikram himself and that she could get one for me from headquarters, it was an old style cassette tape of let’s say, raw quality. However I received my tape and then practiced in my bedroom with a small radiant heater to get the temperature up to the required level, the mirror in the room was barely big enough to see myself. It just wasn’t the same as sharing the energy of the hot room in Sydney and I soon stopped and again started to grunt & lift weights at the gym.

I found myself moving away from the happy state of mind that I had once found and into some pretty dark, foggy areas whilst landing myself in unhealthy relationships.  After much deliberation about the most important relationship that I was having with myself and again sleepless nights which seemed to worsen my health, I decided to return to Sydney, my family and practice in the familiar room that had helped me so much before. After nearly a years’ absence, with the very first breath of pranayama, I knew I was where I needed to be, I felt that happy, good feeling inside again and soon found myself sleeping at night instead of playing the movies in my mind till dawn. The monkey mind was no longer present and I felt great inside and out. I loved and continue to love this practice because of the positive impact it has had on my life.

I enquired about teacher training and the studio owner of Brookvale, Jodie, thought I should attend and encouraged me every step of the way. I cannot thank Jodie enough as it was through her encouragement and awesome classes that I now find myself owning my own studio with another Jodie, who is also my guiding light, partner and mum to our 2 beautiful girls. Once Bikram Yoga came into my life the fog cleared and I continue to enjoy every day that I can share this beautiful practice with all who attend our studio. My ankles, knee and occasional back pain are still present but my continual faith in this practice sees my joints stronger, more flexible and pain free than ever before.

Bikram has changed my body, my life and my mind for the better, it has taught me so much about myself and what my body need’s. I love to pass on the good feeling to anyone who walks through the door, the road to this state of well being has been hard at times but I am constantly reminded of the benefits every time I step onto my mat. I am eternally grateful to all who have helped me to be the person I am today and most of all, thankyou to Bikram and all of the teacher’s who have and still continue to guide me, and of course thankyou to the teacher who stares back at me in the mirror, I kind of like you now.

“You have to go to the hell to get to heaven”

Love & light

Sean