phaulbrook

I came back to Bikram yoga after a 8-year lay-off from the practice. Now I’m 44 and have constraints on my time, so I didn’t want to mess about with something that doesn’t benefit my health. In the past six months, the structured classes have yielded great results physically (I’ve dropped 20-lbs), but mentally as well.

Here’s what I mean….there are parts of the dialogue that I find pretty difficult to take seriously. One of those is the “Japanese ham sandwich” phrase. It’s a perfect example of an instructor mimicing (sic) something they don’t fully understand.

I actually have my thoughts that it’s a phrase that an older person might use referencing back to Japan’s post World War II economic hardships…if you can believe that Japan was seen as a poor country at some point. So the reference is that a Japanese ham sandwich is two pieces of bread with no ham.

How does this help mentally. Eventhough I hate that reference, I effort not to let it derail the rest of my class or my appreciation for the benefits that I get from this yoga. In fact, it’s helpful because in life we run into a wide variety of distractions that aren’t helpful to us…

And could that be why the use that reference the first place…as part of the process of helping the students learn to not let a distraction pull us far from what our purpose is in the class? I think I just blew my mind there.

Peace out.