Yoga Learnings...

“It’s not a yoga perfect, it’s a yoga PRACTICE”
Karen Abbott, my first yoga teacher

It is ironic that I came to Buenos Aires to open a yoga studio. Having decided not to, and there being no other Bikram yoga studio in BsAs yet, and my being a Bikram disciple (in other words I don’t believe other forms of yoga are as beneficial as Bikram) my life in BsAs has been an ongoing journey in finding a space and the will to practice.
In the past year I have practiced yoga in 17 US states, in 3 temporary apartments in BsAs, in bathrooms heated with space heaters and tubs full of hot water, On a patio outdoors in the sun, in AC free rooms in an old run down gym near Congreso, in a couple of rented spaces where I also taught a little. Most of the past 10 months has been a challenge to find a suitable space.

The issues I have encountered have run from a lack of sufficient heat, to boredom with my iPod recordings, from lack of motivation to a dusty terrace full all day with workmen. I have not managed to practice daily, though I have not gone a week without practice. I have made improvements in my practice even with out a teacher and I know I have lost ground in some areas as well.

This week aboard the ship has brought me a new perspective on all of this. The ship is pretty cold and the weather as we head South is getting colder by the day. I knew it would be so. Day one I investigated and found that there is a place, a “Thermal Spa” that is not air conditioned and has heated floors and stone lounges. There is also a sauna and a steam room. Bikram is practiced at 105-115 with 40% humidity. The steam room is too hot, 180 or so and way to humid at 100%. The dry sauna is too hot at 200 or more and no humidity at all. The thermal spa is about 85 degrees with normal humidity, but, it’s better than the air conditioned gym just upstairs. More meaningfully for me is that the thermal spa has a glass wall that looks out to sea and I can watch the waves as I practice. At sea we have the whole day to do as we please and what pleases me is to spend the whole morning in the warmth of the heated lounge chairs and doing my yoga in that room. I am up earlier than most and so it isn’t usually until the end of my practice that anyone else comes in.

The sea of course, moves. As it does the ship moves with it. Heading South the waves get bigger and the ship rocks more. The standing series, the first 45 minutes of a 90 minute practice, is much about balance. Standing with one foot on the floor, the other pointed toward the ceiling, arms stretched from back to front, head upside down, gaze directed backward, hands under my feet, and so on. It is challenging on any day and particularly on a moving floor, rocking from side to side with no predictable rhythm. Just as I think I’ve got it the ship will pitch in an unexpected direction and I’m starting over again. I try each posture, again and again, trusting that in falling out I am learning about how to balance, even if I don’t make it for 60 full seconds. I reach for the wall, something I imagine I would never do in a studio in front of other people, then I think to myself, maybe I would. What if something changed about my balance, my body, my mind. What if I had to? There are some for whom every practice feels as it does for me right now.




I realize that this last year has taught me a great deal. I have learned to tune out the repetitious words of 4 lovely teachers who dutifully talk me through yoga every day, but still hear the corrections and feel their caring as they push me through the postures to do my best. I have learned to not “let the Perfect be the enemy of the Good” as I have only 2 choices, practice in less than perfect circumstances or not practice at all. I have learned that seeking balance in constantly shifting conditions is as worthy a pursuit as finding balance on a steady surface. I find that while I look forward with gusto to the day when I will join a community of yogis in a hot, steamy room in BsAs and hear the voice of a teacher I have never heard before, that I also treasure the energy I have marshaled for myself these past months and sight of the rolling, pitching, frothy waves, deep blue and white stretching out for miles in front of me as I kick up in floor bow.




As I have carried my years of practice and the voices of my teachers with me through this period, I hope to hold the sight of these beautiful waters and the sense of fragile balance into my classes for years to come.