Day 5 of my 6 months sabbatical:

I got my Manduka Mat Yoga Mat and signed up for the Bikram Hot Yoga. This place rented out mats. It’s a great idea for people who are not sure if they want to stick with yoga. Who knew.

The place was  nice… mostly women and a few men.  Once I entered the space, I felt this wave of heat over me. OMG, I panicked a little because it was so damn hot and I had trouble breathing right away. I calmed down and tried not to make a fool of myself. My yoga instructor was a cute shirtless guy in blue spandex shorts. With a  British accent, he asked who’s new to yoga here. I raised my hand along with a few women. He smiled at me. He said the session is 90 minutes and the goal for the newbies is just to stay in room the entire time.

Bikram Hot Yoga Session

After a couple of poses, I sweated like a pig and got really light-headed. I drank only a cup of coffee that day and later found out I had to drink at least 60oz of water before class. BTW, you need a big towel to put on your yoga mat. They had to stop the class and gave me one. I was such a mess. After 60 minutes I thought I lost my mind so I just sat there and breathed.

The yoga instructor said I did well and glad that I stuck through the entire class. I never felt anything like this before… exhausted and exhilarated to the max. My body felt warm all night and  I was sore all over. Stay tuned…

Update 3-17-2015: As with all new yoga mats, they need to be broken in at first because they come new, stiff and some have this slippery coating from manufacturing. The company suggest rubbing dampen sea salt on it and let it dries in the sun etc. I decided to lay my mat in my hallway and just walked on it barefoot throughout the  day.  That worked!

x Van