To be honest, this section is for yoga enthusiasts only. The rest of you will be bored.....
So, this should get us up to the present. My diagnosis and situation at 28 really lead me into a self pitying depression. My anger at my mother returned, and the doctor etc. The doctor gave me several meds, presciption anti anflammatories and pain meds. I could not beleive I was on pain meds and anti-inflammatories at 28. How would my liver survive???
I had a wonderful Sikh Chiropractor at the time in LA. Waheguru Singh Khalsa. He was really the beginning of opening my eyes and heart to the potencial of alternative healing and medicine. I had also started doing some Kundalini yoga. I even use to go to the house of Gurmurkh. (if you have not heard of her, she is quite famous in that world, celebrities and such and owns a studio in Hollywood...the name has left my brain...sorry). But, kundalini was really just not doing it for me. I still went to the gym to stay active, but spent most of my time strectching. After a childhood of dancing and gymnastics, stretching was still one of my favorite hobbies, and it helped reduce my pain.
Five months after going to see the Othopedist, i was in Denver, Colorado for work. I forget if a new Nordstom was opening or what, but I had never been to Colorado before. What a beautiful place. I stayed with my friends parents who i had never met. (He offered, and I like parents...so fun...) the first night I had dinner with Colorado's mom, (yes, we call him Colorado), and she was an absolute pleasure to be with. She said she would be attending a yoga class the next night and that I was welcome to join her. So, even though I lived in L.A., about 10 minutes from the Bikram's headquarters, i attended my first Bikram yoga class in Denver, Colorado with a woman I had known for 24 hours.
It pretty much blew my mind and I was instantly fascinated. I went home and we looked at his book where he talks about arthritis. I knew I would continue.
By the time I went to Bikram's studio in Beverly hills i had a pretty bad limp. I was in pain all the time. The problem with the class was I did not like locking the knee. I am hyperextended, and felt it was wrong for my body. I fought it for a few months. But the one I refused to do was wind removing. Pulling my right leg in was too painful, so i just skipped it. I honestly forget how long I was practicing there before one day the inevitable happend, Bikram walked in the room to teach class. He made me lock my knee, and when he saw me skipping wind removing pose, he jumped off his podium and strode right over to me. I tried to tell him I had broken my hip, (I found that to be major, dramatic, something to be listened to and respected) he ignored me, picked up my right leg, interlaced my fingers over my shin, put me in the posture and told me "good, i'll break it again." I was horrified, outraged, how dare he, doesn't he know, .....That day, I walked out of there with no pain and no limp. It was gone. It was a bloody miracle, but no amount of praying could do what that class did. It changed my life that day.
The next day I quit my gym membership and started coming three times a week working my way up to 5. Bikram started to know who I was and one day, he came up to me, put his finger on my chest and said, "You should do my teacher training, you will be the best one." At this point in my life, I had a very sucessful shoe business career. I had though about teacher training already, but also thought, "how nice for those people who don't have to work....." But it is hard to explain how powerful Bikram can be when he looks in your eyes and cleary knows you better than you know yourself. Within the week, I planned my exit from the shoe business. I was sick of going to bed at night worried if I had sold Norstrom enough of our new high heel pump. It was not going to change or help the world, and you could never do enough for these corporations anyway and I was sick of it. I felt like i had this very special knowledge, and I wanted to share it with everyone. By the time I quit my job many month later, I had been practicing the yoga for a year and a half. There are so many amazing, life changing stories from my time with Bikram, but that is really another blog. He changed my life, like he has changed millions of others.
When I went to teacher training in the spring of 1998 for 11 weeks, my heart was so sure about what I was doing, that when I finshed I thought I would have to do temp work and hope for some private clients. Instead, i got very inspired during training to open a studio. But I was all about LA and Bikram was there, so I could not open there. My best friend Weezy had moved out to Pasadena to get a masters at Art Center, and Pasadena was pretty close to LA. I wasn't really keen on the suburbs, I mean I loved LA, and Pasadena...well was Pasadena. So, at the end of teacher training, i mentioned that maybe, i could think about the possibility of Pasadena for opening a studio....well....his eyes lit up, he got very intense and said."That is the best idea!" Once again, hard to explain how powerful that is coming from him. Done.
I spent the next 6 months traveling and visiting friends, teaching, looking at studios, getting ideas, and and seeing what I liked and didn't like about what I saw. It was a great time in my life. I spent 3 weeks in New York which was like a dream come true.
After all my travels, Weezy and I drove around Pasadena deciding where I should open my studio. Studios were much smaller in those days. We settled on where we are now, and I opened in Nov. 1998. I never looked back. I didn't miss the shoe business, and had this deep belief that I would not fail. (my mother was very concerned....) When I opened my studio, 1-3 students attended each class, but I loved it. I will save what it was like those first few months for another day. But I love Pasadena. I am the biggest fan. I was determined to find a marry a man in Pasadena who did not want to leave and wanted to raise a family here. I think i willed that one to me.
There are so many points I am trying to make here. One of them is this, even though it totally sucks that i ended up breaking my hip cause my doctor was incompetant and didn't beleive me, my life has taken many amazing roads to take me to where I am today. The beautiful city of Pasadena, raising two incredible daughters with the most special and amazing husband, with our yoga studio that I still love teaching at and going to every day. There have been a lot of lessons along the way, and I hope that through my life experience, I share those lessons and bring them into my life and teaching.
More of that later.....
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