Bikram Yoga Decatur

Mary Jarvis has been a student of Bikram and teaching Bikram Style Yoga for 28 years. She is an excellent illustrator of technique and a boundless source of Yoga inspiration. As a survivor of a near fatal auto accident, Mary is living proof of the powers of Bikram Yoga. Listed as one of the top three Bikram teachers by Yoga Journal, this special class will allow for a deeper exploration of your Bikram yoga practice.

Come fine-tune and finesse your Bikram practice with Mary. Each day will focus on different postures, sign up for one or both days! Take advantage of this unique opportunity, this is the first time Mary has done a posture class in Atlanta!

SATURDAY, February 11th
10:00 Class 12:00 - 4:30 Posture Class

SUNDAY, February 12th
10:00 Class 12:00 - 4:30 Posture Class

CLASS & POSTURE CLASS 1 DAY
Saturday or Sunday $90.00 (before Feb. 6th) $110.00 (after Feb. 6th)

CLASS & POSTURE CLASS 2 DAYS
Saturday & Sunday $150.00 (before Feb. 6th) $175.00 (after Feb. 6th)

This month's benefit class recipient is the Georgia Lyme Disease Association, an all-volunteer patient advocacy group that is dedicated to the prevention of and education about Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. GALDA was brought to our attention by Bikram practitioner, Holly B. Here's Holly's story...

During my last class of 2011, on New Year’s Eve morning, our instructor invited anyone who wished to do so to hold the second set of Ustrasana (Camel Pose) for a full minute rather than the regular 20 seconds. In most activities, the difference between 20 seconds and 60 seems minor. But in Camel Pose? Well, now, that’s entirely different…and you, Bikram yogi, probably know exactly what I mean.

I chose not to publish your comment that was left in regard to the 10:30 pm class on New Year's Eve. It just seemed a little too personal and possibly like you were just blowing off a little steam. I'm sorry you are unable to join us and I wish you the best for a happy and productive new year.

Due to a recent security breach (we was hacked!) we have temporarily disabled all user accounts.

As our regular clients know, we don't always strictly enforce our policy of closing the doors 5 minutes before the scheduled class time. However, we always retain the right to do so and we just entered our busy season.

I'm just sayin....

update - This message has been updated with a corrected date. The benefit is December 31 at 4:00 pm.

This month's benefit class was chosen by BYD student Mark Auger. Here's Mark,

Heath Evans had a 10 year professional football career including stints with the seattle seahawks, new england patriots and new orleans saints. His wife had been a victim of sexual abuse as a child so after Heath retired, they established the heath evans foundation to support victims of abuse. You can check out their website at: www.heathevans.org.

It takes a lot of courage to support a cause like this. No one wants to talk about this type of abuse. This is why I felt like channeling my anger about it into something positive. I was inspired by the recent events at Penn State to do a 30 day challenge to raise pledge money for this charity and my company acceptance capital is supporting the cause as well. Due to a pretty severe knee injury (I've had 9 surgeries) I haven't been able to complete a traditional 30 day challenge. I was able to get through 15 consecutive classes before needing a bit of a break. My goal is to complete 30 classes in 40 days and I am on track to achieve that goal next week. I will be working to get more pledges through the fb page this week. I just received a $150 pledge from a friend which is very encouraging.

Saturday, December 31, 4:00 pm. All proceeds from this class will be donated to the Heath Evans Foundation in honor of Mark's challenge.

I mentioned previously that we signed up with Dwolla. Here's the back story...

This 28-Year-Old's Startup Is Moving $350 Million And Wants To Completely Kill Credit Cards

Who's gonna be the first to pay for yoga with Dwolla?

This was pointed out to us as something of interest...

For This Yogi, Afghan Peace Plan Needs More Downward Dog

A Former Model Bends Over Backward to Unite Taliban, Coalition in Meditation

By DION NISSENBAUM

KABUL—Retired male supermodel Cameron Alborzian sat down with Maj. Gen. Phil Jones at the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Kabul this past summer to discuss a novel way to persuade Afghan insurgents to lay down arms.

Best known in his youth as Madonna's smoldering music-video love interest, Mr. Alborzian presented a bold plan to the British general who oversaw the coalition's effort to lure Taliban fighters from the battlefield: Afghan militants should join Western troops in meditation and yoga, embracing a new spirit of brotherly unity.

"The achievement would be: American soldiers meditate, Taliban meditate and, in jails, they meditate together," Mr. Alborzian said. "One is on one side of the bar, the other is on the other side of the bar. You are both in jail—and you can find the peace in it together."

The former model's message of peace may seem kooky. But it has been persuasive enough to get meetings for Mr. Alborzian and his project's Kabul-based representative with senior coalition officers, Afghan ministers and even a onetime insurgent leader.

Read more...

We just signed up with Dwolla. This is a new payment system, similar to Paypal but with lower fees.

I'm very excited about this. We're also going to be able to start accepting payments from Square very soon.

I'll say more later but I wanted to get word out so you can think about signing up. These two services could help us reduce our credit card processing fees, enabling us to continue to offer the lowest hot yoga prices in Atlanta.

As I’ve approached this final day of my challenge, I assumed my last post about it would involve some kind of neat and tidy summary of my experience. (As if there’s anything neat and tidy about Bikram yoga!) I was obviously anticipating again. A summary suggests the end of something…a summing up…and I’m struck by the thought that there can be no summary, for there’s no ending taking place here. No ending whatsoever.

One of the most devastating moments anyone could experience would be when a doctor tells you that your child has cancer. This happens to thousands of families, thousands of children, all over the world, every single day. Several years ago, it happened to Erin & Stephen Chance -- a family in the neighborhood very close to BYD. They were told their 3 year old son, Patrick, had stage 4 neuroblastoma -- one of the most aggressive pediatric cancers. In the years since that diagnosis, Patrick has battled through countless surgeries, chemotherapy, endless rounds of radiation, stem cell rescue, painful antibody therapies, soaring hope with remission, and the crushing of that hope with relapse. A series of physically, mentally, & emotionally taxing events that legitimately could lead any person to the point of complete collapse & despair.

And yet, neither the family, nor Patrick, has ever given up. They instead choose to press on. Hence the genesis of the organization they created, Press On Foundation, along with the family of another young boy, Brennan Simkins, who is fighting acute myeloid leukemia. The foundation exists for the purpose of providing funds to respected institutions such as Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital & St. Jude Children's Hospital to continue their research in the field of childhood cancer. Because doing something will always triumph over doing nothing. Please join us in continuing their valiant fight -- on behalf of all children who suffer from pediatric cancers -- at the BYD benefit class Thanksgiving weekend -- November 26th at 4pm.

For more information: www.pressonfund.org

After going into Savasana last night during my 22nd class, I listened as Rebecca R. explained that Bikram designed this yoga to be a 90-minute moving meditation in order to teach westerners how to meditate. By working the same sequence of postures over and over again, we can see the many ways in which we constantly evolve against a background that doesn't change. I heard something in these words that took on a whole new meaning for me. I'm not a static being but one who is in a constant state of flux. The yoga doesn't change, but I do. The yoga stays the same so that it can show me that I do not. What a beautiful truth...one that belongs to all of us, I think. (11/16/2011)

I recently attended a class led by guest instructor Tu Nguyen. It was a quietly driven class, hard and exhausting but beautifully meditative. He demonstrated Pranayama (Deep Breathing) for some new students and it seemed like minutes passed with his every breath. He breathed so deep and long that the entire room was still and silent with a palpable awe, waiting...just waiting...on the very edge of every inhale he took and every exhale he released. I remember thinking, I want to breathe that way. Since then, I've been acutely aware of how gorgeous is the sound of my own breath: the sound of life passing into and out of my blood. A room full of human beings breathing slowly and deeply together: a rich cadence of living art.

Holy guacamole - I am so feelin' it! Over the last few days, it seems like my greatest challenge has been to stand still or sit down and take a rest. I recall Eric once saying that an advanced practice isn't just evidenced by an ability to do the postures deeply or indefinitely. It also demonstrates a willingness to honor limits and back off when necessary, to override ego when it says to push through anyway because resting constitutes weakness or failure. As I round the mid-point of my challenge, I'm definitely feeling the need to be an advanced student. :) Physically, I need to ease up a bit and make sure I'm working at a pace that reflects my body's changing needs at this point in my challenge (and wow, are they changing!). That's intuition. Mentally I don't want to back off; I just want to do. And that's ego.

We'll be just about finished with the standing series at 11:11:11 tomorrow morning, Friday, November 11, 2011, which happens to be Bikram Yoga Decatur's 9th birthday (this sentence would have been more fun if we opened two years earlier).

Tomorrow is also Veteran's Day. Please be sure to thank the veterans in your life for their service and sacrifice.

In honor of our studio's birthday we will be giving a present tomorrow to one randomly selected client during each class.

Have you been to our studio but not for a long time? Have you been thinking about coming back? Now's the time. Any existing BYD client who has not attended class in 2011 is eligible for 30 Days Unlimited Attendance for only $50!

Offer expires Nov. 30, 2011.

I am thrilled to announce that locally produced Arden's Garden fresh fruit smoothies are now available in our lobby.

Rebecca "H" Causey took 2nd place in the USA Yoga Southeast Regional Competition and will be attending the 2012 Nationals. Congratulations and good luck.

10 classes now under my belt. Writing about my challenge has been a revealing process. On the one hand, since I always take a few moments to capture and jot down my thoughts after each class, I find myself still thinking about my practice after I've left the room. Writing also keeps me plugged in to what day I'm on; today I'm aware that I'm a third of the way through. This awareness of time can feel distracting. I don't want to feel as if I'm just ticking off the days, because I'm really enjoying this daily time with myself in the room, even when I think I'm not enjoying it.

Day 8. UGH!!! How to capture what tonight’s class was like? Had a strong and focused balancing series. The heat was back up to snuff. It felt good; my body has been missing it. Went down into the first Savasana (Dead Body) and suddenly felt myself sputter and stall, just like an idling car engine that abruptly stops running. My arms and legs felt boneless as I lifted them into Pavanamuktasana (Wind-Removing). Pushing up into Bhujangasana (Cobra), my heart began pounding and the first vestige of panic settled in.

I am walking home after my 7th class.
I am strong in my body.
I am the autumn fire devouring these trees.
I am the clarity of this vaulting blue sky.
I am the heat of this pulsing sun.

So there I am in my 4th class, armed with my mantra: "Never give up; you're only as limited as your thoughts", and what do I do in Dandayamana-Janushirasana (Standing Head to Knee): I give up. In the second set, with my right leg locked solid, my left leg kicking out strong, my elbows bent down near my calf muscles, I began to drop my forehead to my knee. "What are you doing?!", said a voice in my head. "You can't do that! You'll hurt your back!" So I started to come back up when I heard my instructor say, "Just try". I knew she was talking to me.

13 months into my Bikram practice, I'm excited to have begun my first 30-day challenge. My first 3 classes have felt "normal", since it's not unusual for me to do 3 days in a row, but I've never done more than that. I practice 4-5 times a week, but that's not the same thing as 30 classes in 30 days, so I think it's safe to say that from this point on, I'm entering uncharted sweaty waters. I can't wait to see where they take me. A few things I've been aware of about my practice during these first 3 days:

One of the reasons I removed my blog posts was that the poems I had published on this site before April 2011 were being reviewed for inclusion in a yoga poetry anthology (I didn’t want their web publication to disqualify them). As I read through the blog, in deciding what to keep, I saw beauty in the flaws of my “weakest” entries. This reminded me that the journey, each honest step and what it reveals, is what it’s all about. How graceful or flawless the step is secondary, and more important is what it teaches us. So I decided to clear the blog, and start a blank page.

Last night, I got a wild hair and set up my mat on the left side of the yoga room, away from the windows where I usually practice. That's your wild hair, you ask? Well, yeah...but remember, you're talking to someone who thinks living on the edge is mixing some real coffee in with the decaf. If you ask students who regularly practice on the right side of the room why they prefer that side, we might tell you that it's not as warm and/or that it feels more open. I'm of the latter opinion; I feel claustrophobic on the left, so I typically avoid setting up there unless there's absolutely no space remaining on the right. In other words, hardly ever.

Our benefit class this month is dedicated to the Welles Crowther Charitable Trust. This organization came to our attention by BYD regular Meaghan Dalton. The description below is from her.

Can you take the heat?

The Bikram Challenge is a way to take your practice to a new level and it's simple to undertake. Simply commit to attend 30 classes in 30 days or 60 classes in 60 days. The main reward is in the practice itself but we're going to sweeten the pot by adding this incentive: Complete the 60 Day Challenge and we'll give you $60 credit towards any product or class card. Complete 30 classes in 30 days and receive $30 credit.

You must sign up before October 22.

Read More...

There are no cancelations for Columbus Day.

Why does this holiday always sneak up on me?

You've been asking us ever since we opened and it's finally happening. Bikram Yoga is coming to Athens, GA.

Very soon.