kfi2000

I’m sorry you are dealing with such persistent anxiety!  Exercise is good for anxiety, yoga in particular, and in my experience, the Bikram series hot yoga.  I’ll explain why in a minute.

But first, you mention mostly physical symptoms of anxiety (nausea), but I don’t hear any reference to other symptoms, such as racing thoughts, believing something bad is going to happen, etc.  Can you clarify if your anxiety experience is all about the nausea?

A couple of things the hot yoga class does for you is burn off some of that excess physical activity, teaches controlled breathing, and emphasizes calm focus.  How is your breathing?  Does it change when you start to feel more anxious?  Do you ever find yourself breathing through the mouth?  What is going on with your eyes?  Are they darting around the room?  Or are they fixed on one spot?  What is going on in the mind?  Clear and focused on yoga?  Or something outside of the room?  These are challenging things to accomplish but are all important.

Now, what I have found about the Bikram class is that the spine strengthening series is highly similar to a technique psychologists use to treat anxiety…..the combination of temporarily tensing almost every muscle in the body for about 15 seconds followed by complete relaxation of those muscles.  100% effort followed by 100% relaxation.  During the savasana, focus on that relaxed feeling….breathe….clear the mind.  The principle is, total relaxation is incompatible with anxiety…you can’t have both at the same time.  The intense physical part helps you accomplish the relaxation part through muscle fatigue.

One last thing…since you have focused almost exclusively on nausea, it might be worthwhile to rule out any physical/medical cause for that symptom.  Just a thought.

Namaste,

-Kristin

What a great story! Can we assume all your back and knee pain are gone? I would guess so!

I’d also like to hear more about your first couple of classes….you went there thinking it would be short term. Was it love at first back bend? Or like many, did you initially hate it then come to love how you felt?

Thanks for the story and all the other personal choices you have made along the way!

-Kristin

Hi Sue,

I googled this in the past, because I had a similar experience. What I found was that the ammonia smell is related to higher protein in the diet. I guess that’s why cat urine smells like ammonia! :bug: For me, it is something that varies, sometimes it occurs, sometimes not. I do tend to include more protein in my diet, so I figured it was just related to that.

Thanks Gabrielle! I will definitely use this early on to rebuild strength and also give me a sense of where things stand in terms of healing.

Helen….have you been back to class yet? How is your healing coming along?

-Kristin

Hm, that’s a good question. All I was told was the 15% increased risk….perhaps it is lifetime, but they say no lifting more than 5 pounds for the first few weeks. Then I think, “Well, this yoga has given me pretty good core strength, and I have good awareness”, so perhaps the risk is slightly lower for us. 😉

I like the idea of recovery buddies! Best of luck!

-Kristin

I would certainly talk to the instructor about it. I’m not sure why the instructor is not already addressing this issue….at my studio, people are reminded not to drink water during postures, especially balancing postures. As for the other theatrics, again I think the instructor would be in a good position to talk to this student outside of class.

My studio also does an email newsletter from time to time, with helpful tips and studio news….and then one section that addresses these types of issues. In this case, for example, the newsletter would probably focus on the importance of stillness between postures, why its important not to engage in all these extraneous behaviors, etc… Its framed in a positive and often humorous way (i.e., from a dog’s viewpoint), but gets the message across.

– Kristin

Wow thanks! Lots to consider.
Having gone through your book, videos, and this site, I have played around with the changes in foot position. My feet at the beginning of class are typically bunions touching, toes are apart from each other (necessarily, since the big toe is moving laterally, away from midline due to the deformity of the foot)…heels are close together if not touching. If I move my heels out a tiny bit to straighten the feet and have knees forward, that does seem more correct, anatomically. However, as soon as hips push forward (such as in the backbend), there is a natural force that turns the legs out and the heels come together, sometimes bunions separating from each other. I haven’t had balance problems in half moon, though, so I haven’t worried much about that.

For me, I struggle with balance beginning with Eagle, although only on the left foot….this foot is worse in terms of the bunion. I agree there may be an alignment issue, but on top of that it just feels like this foot is weaker. It tends to cramp up….this could be a clue for you…am I scrunching my toes? sometimes I do, yes, and its due to this battle of the balance. For Eagle, I can usually balance on the right without trouble (and incidentally, the left leg is nicely wrapped around the calf, but on the other side, the foot is hanging out there in space).

Then comes SHTK. I’ve slowly improved in this posture and can do the full posture (head to knee) about 10% of the time. Interestingly, there is not a big difference right versus left in this pose, which might be related to what you said in your post….somehow the flared foot helps here? I suspect that its easier too, because it is a far more static posture, unlike the others where you are moving quite a bit.

To answer your question, I believe I do actually feel a traction line here between the kick and abdominal compression/back rounding. Interestingly, there is a strong mental component to this as well, and when I hit it just right (that 10% of the time), I find it very calming.

Standing Bow…..oh this posture gives me grief, but I do like it! When standing on the right leg, I believe I could balance the entire time if it weren’t for my back cramping up (and me getting tired) and me pushing hard to make corrections in the pose and therefor throwing my balance off. I’m fine with that, and sometimes I do hold the entire posture. Standing on the left foot, though, is another matter. I have tried every which way to approach this….definitely how you suggest, and how your book teaches…. but for whatever reason, “stuff” gets out of alignment and I feel like a house of cards. If I simply charge the body forward (as instructed), sometimes I can then work backward into that arch, but still its a mess. Again, I feel a lot of weakness in the left foot.

Ditto on balancing stick, although I’ve improved on this because I seem to practice it all over the house! 🙂 I feel strong on the right leg, but wobbly on the left, and am more prone to have the right hip sticking way up on that side. (By the way, does everyone else feel a major cramp in the standing leg when they work the hip down? Ow!)

Finally, toe stand…..I can almost always do this well on the right foot. But on the left….no. This pose probably will highlight a lot of issues….on the right foot, I feel from the beginning that I’m just off the heel (not sitting on it), the foot feels reasonably strong, my knees are in alignment, etc, and I can push upward off the heel with hands in namaskar. On the left….I feel heavy on the heel, I don’t seem to have the strength in the foot/leg to push up at all, which sabotages the balance, and when I look in the mirror, my spine is way off from straight….I have a natural curve on the left side of the spine, so left hip is higher. This is hard to compensate for in this pose, and I’ve tried moving the position of the foot from center, to the right hip, to the left hip….I do better when the left foot is under the right hip, but marginally so. I feel like this one has gotten worse instead of better, I feel like my bunion is worse, my balance is worse, and I have less strength in this foot.

Weight is not an issue for me, I’m probably underweight, if anything.

SO! Now that I have hijacked this thread! sorry for the rambling, but I seem to have a lot of time to think about these things. %-P

I look forward to additional input on this thread, I think balance is a struggle for many.

Wow!!! So happy for you!!!

I still struggle with this, because the class certainly is not easy. But I think that is one of the points….you can learn to be calm/still even in a stressful situation. Sometimes when I am considering sitting out a posture, I ask myself, “Is it mental?” If I can ask that question, then it IS mental and I can push through. I still have to sit out a posture once in a while, either because of room conditions or (more often) something going on with me. At those times, its obvious to me that I need a break. I believe that mental stillness is as much of a skill as the posture itself, and something to always keep working toward.

You…my dear…are amazing! Tell yourself that the next time you look at yourself in the mirror. 🙂

Just curious….are you taking medication for low thyroid? If so, have you had your levels checked since you started doing all this yoga?

-Kristin

Personally, I think a studio needs SOME degree of structure, etiquette, whatever you want to call it. As you both mentioned, it is distracting when people are coming and going. I can’t imagine people coming in during the final breathing exercise!

I’ve heard this class described as a “moving meditation”, and when everyone in the room is in sync, it is a powerful experience. Everyone moves together, gains energy from those around them, and these are some of my best classes. On the other hand, when there are people huffing, wiping, bolting from the room, and pacing around in circles, the energy is quite different. Should I be able to block this out? Perhaps, and I try to do so. But it is not that hard to establish some guidelines to reduce those unnecessary distractions. Ultimately, limiting those behaviors benefits everyone, including the person engaging in them.

-Kristin

I certainly appreciate your feelings on this, but I wanted to be clear that at least in my studio, I’ve never had a teacher be anything but warm and supportive. They do make corrections periodically, but it feels helpful rather than military-style. I’ve certainly never heard any barking. 🙂

I have no doubt that there are teachers in the world who take a more rigid style, but fortunately I have not encountered it where I practice.

Hey, even in Bikram’s CD, he calls someone out….”Sweetheart! Sweetheart! Do you know where your ankle is?”, but then he is also funny, encouraging, and a bit of a show off.