Free Screening of The Connection on December 6 at The Hub

I saw a trailer for this film right before it came out and I knew I'd want to watch it. It's about health and wellbeing and how the mind and the body are connected. You can see the trailer for yourself here.

When it was officially released I bought a copy to watch. It's great! If you're into yoga at all, there's a good chance what you see in this film won't be new, but it will help to affirm your practice.

It's a film I wish more people would watch because I think it's important for us to know that how we're feeling and what's happening inside has a profound effect on our health and our overall satisfaction with our lives.

So I was lying in yoga class and an idea popped into my head (as those ideas do!) and I thought, why don't I screen the film upstairs at the Hub and then people can come and see the film! I came out of yoga class and asked the owner of the Bikram Studio if she thought her people would come up to the Hub and watch a movie on the weekend. She thought that was a great idea and we picked a date, I checked with the Hub for availability, and bam! The movie's happening next week.

I thought it might be fun to run it as an event for real, so I set it up in Eventbrite and there are (free) tickets and I have the screening rights and it's posted on the official film website and now it's happening!

Please come! If you can't come but you'd like to see the movie anyway, here's a link. If you use my first name in the discount code you can take 25% off until December 8.

So not only is the film happening, Claire from Bikram has a free vinyasa class at 12:15 already going on until Christmas, but she's offering free Bikram classes at 4 for anybody who wants to come. That class is usually $20, so can you really afford not to come to yoga?

Saturday, December 6 at 1:30 - 3:30. Film starts at 2 so if you're at yoga you've got time to change.

Here's the link to the event - please sign up so I know you're coming. Mind Body Connection Screening.

I've been hanging out at The Hub a lot since the end of the summer and I'm feeling at home there. I have been hosting the Living Yoga classes there and it's been great. I hope you'll come and visit on Saturday!

Back to Bikram

Sounds crazy, I know, but I went back to a Bikram class today (which I've done before as you'll find in the link). I first did a Bikram class back in 1992 with Bikram himself when I lived at Kripalu. Since then I've done lots of Bikram classes but today was the first time I've done the "express" class. New favourite thing!

The reason for the Bikram is the location and the time. As I mentioned in my last post, I've given myself some structured work times and I wanted to break it up as well as take advantage of the proximity to a yoga class, which happens to be in the same building, so I really have no excuse not to go, except of course, that it's a Bikram class.

People who don't know yoga, can't really appreciate the difference between a Bikram class and one of the classes I teach, or pretty much just about any other type of yoga class you'd go to. It's a huge difference when you know what's what. A Bikram class requires some things...I'm not going to go into it right here but suffice it to say, I've got a bundle of wet, smelly clothes (and a towel!) with me and I'm figuring out how to jam it all in my backpack with my computer and paperwork and get home on my bike. But it's a nice problem to have. And with the class only lasting an hour, I spent hardly any time wishing the class were over already.

Back to Bikram

When I first came to Ottawa and wanted to go to yoga classes, I wanted something predictable. I didn't want to hear a new yoga teacher's spiritual take on life or try fancy poses, I wanted something comfortable and known. So I went to Bikram Yoga, as I had learned it back when I lived at Kripalu when Bikram himself came all the way from California to teach us. It helped that the classes in Ottawa were often taught by my old ashram brother, Luc.

Over the years I've done Bikram on and off. I hate it love it hate it love it if you know what I mean.

Lately I've had some tightness in my shoulder and wrist and I've adjusted my downward dogs and been careful on my hands and knees and I even talked to my trainer about it. "Jamine, you're getting old." Well, that did it. I walked straight into a Bikram class and went to work. My shoulder and wrist are about 90% better after 3 classes last week. That series is so therapeutic and if it doesn't kill you, it will definitely make you feel better.

As for the heat, the medication I'm on is giving me hot flashes, so I'm already there and it doesn't seem to make them worse. I would figure it's actually balancing me except that the stuff I'm on is intentionally unbalancing me so I don't want to mess with that too much. I'm preparing mentally to have surgery in just less than a month and it's probably not a bad idea to prepare physically while I'm at it. I don't want to be stuck with a sore shoulder and unable to move around, so I'll fix it now and hopefully it won't be bothering me afterwards.