Student of the Month:

July 10' Student of the month: Ciana DeBernardo

My love affair with Bikram yoga did not start( I repeat, did not) start off as love at first sight or should I say, love at first sweat. My very first Bikram experience was seven years ago at age 24. I remember feeling annoyed, anxious and in pain the entire class and needless to say, I couldnÕt wait to get the hell out of there. Being a distance runner in high school and throughout my college years, I wasnÕt ready at the time to throw in my running shoes for a yoga matÉ It wouldnÕt be until two years later that my love affair with Bikram yoga would begin. Like most love affairs, mine with Bikram yoga happened when I least expected it and when I needed it the most. Fast forward two years later when at age 26, I was enduring my second winter in New York when only one year prior I left my hometown of sunny Florida for a dream job in Manhattan. I remember it perfectly the day Bikram yoga showed up in my life for the second time. It was the Manhattan blizzard of 2004, one of the worst snow storms the city had seen in decades and I was witnessing it first hand as I trudged though the ice cold, freezing slush on my way home from work one gloomy evening. My feet were so cold I thought for sure I was suffering from a mild case of frost bite and I began to wonder how I was going to survive yet another New York winter. As feelings of sadness and longing for my sunny Florida home rushed through me and not paying attention to where I was going, I ran right smack dab into a sign that read, BIKRAM YOGA UPSTAIRS. So, with the heat calling my name, I ran up the two flights of stairs, purchased some shorts off the rack and made it (just barely) to the next scheduled class. My second class was just as tough as my first, but (like the best love affair) I was ready to open my heart to all the gifts Bikram yoga had to offer. As my body relaxed into the floor I finally felt warm and the familiar heat and humidity rushed over me. I was back in sunny Florida if only for a blissful 90 minutes, I was hooked!!

Bikram yoga was my savior though three more years of treacherous Manhattan winters and it continues to be my savior through all of lifeÕs ÒmomentsÓ. And now at age 33, I continue my love affair with Bikram yoga for many reasons but mostly because it makes me feel powerful and it reminds me to be patient because everything IÕm searching for is right in front of me, I just need to open my heart and IÕll run right into it!

~Ciana DeBernardo

June 10' Student of the month: Bhakti Patel

I've been in a constant state of cognitive dissonance: my real self [who I am] did not match my ideal self [who I wanted to be.] For years, I've spent hours in the gym and practically made it my second home. I've tried it all: running, spinning, weight lifting, and pretty much anything else that I thought would make me look like someone from the cover of Women's Health Magazine.

On a personal level, I did accomplish a lot: I went from not being able to run a mile to running 13, and I'm sure I could have run more if I trained myself.

My daily work outs were like medicine: I only endured them because I knew they were good for me. But like I've said, years have passed and I haven't seen the results I wanted. Regardless, I still pushed myself to do these things, hoping that one day I'd attain my dream body.

Then a few months ago, a friend of mine told me about Bikram yoga and that it was great for weight loss. I had never heard of it and had no idea what to expect. His exact words were, "I've seen girls that have done Bikram Yoga and can literally break a dog off his leash." I was sold.

My first class was a Karma class in February and I will never forget how euphoric I felt after; I was in the best mood I've ever experienced, and it was inexplicable [well not really because I knew it was the Yoga] but still it was so unusual and bizarre, the fact that of all the "riches" in the world, locking myself up in a 90-something degree room with what felt like 100% humidity, and forcing my body into unimaginable postures, was sole source of my ecstasy. I was hooked.

Now, I can't say that I look like the brown Gisele BŸndchen, but I can say that ever since I've started Bikram's Yoga, my body feels like its functioning at 100% efficiency. Unlike my previous workouts, yoga doesn't make me feel like I've been hit by a bus. I do feel a sort of discomfort afterwards, but only the phrase, "It hurts so good" does this feeling justice.

But for me, the most important result is that the phrase "Cognitive Dissonance" has never crept into my mind [except for now but it doesn't count because I don't feel that way.] And as long as this holds true, Bikram's "Torture Chamber" will remain MY Fun House: I can't wait to see what I am capable of!

~Bhakti D. Patel

May 10' Student of the month: Margaret Bishop

Bikram Yoga, how do I love thee? Let me count the whys...

1. One year...18 lbs smaller, 1 inch taller...new clothes, hooray!

2. No more pills to pop for migraine headaches and high blood pressure!

3. I love bragging to my husband and daughters. "I was able to grab my heels in camel today!", "I put my head on the floor in fixed firm!", " I lost 2 more lbs this week!"

4. "I saw Margaret at Publix, I hadn't seen her in awhile and she was wearing make-up and she looked really good", says one friend to the other, who replies, "Margaret never wears make-up, that's just how she looks since she's been doing that crazy hot yoga."

5. I'm feeling comfortable, centered, and at home in my own body--it's like my mind and body are in sync for the first time in my life.

6. I'm calmer and handling stress better, particularly in my work as an ICU nurse. Anyone who doubts that should have seen me before...I was a maniac!

7. Menopause-it's overrated! I'm feeling better and enjoying life more now than ever. Hot flashes, big deal, at least they don't last 90 minutes, and you don't have to wait until eagle is over to take a drink of water!

8. Living in the present is so much better than trying to re-write the past and worrying about the future.

9. I no longer do floors!!! My husband is so happy about the effects of the yoga that he's taken on more chores and responsibilities at home to ensure that I have the time and energy to devote to the yoga.

10. Sunny Chantelle, Carola the Yogi Slayer, and Traci the Master of Timing and Technique!


With their help by this time next year I'm hoping my left knee will no longer be estranged in LA and will be re-united with my right knee in Chicago when I'm in "fixed firm".

~ Margaret Bishop

April 10' Student of the month: Mary Nochimson

Hello fellow students,
My name is Mary Nochimson, and I just wanted to tell you a little bit how Bikram Yoga changed my life. I have done all types of workouts... from weight training to cardio, from running a marathon to work out DVDs, I couldn't seem to get the results that I wanted. I started yoga about a month ago and I have gotten more results after 1 week's worth of Bikram Yoga than I have seen from training 4 and a half months for a Full-26.2-marathon! Every workout seemed to "bulk" me up as opposed to "lean" me down. Over the past month of hot yoga, let me tell you about all the changes I have been experiencing...

When I started, I was stuck at a plateau of 185 lbs. Within 3 weeks of yoga, I lost over 10 pounds and am steadily losing more without changes in my diet. I used to describe myself as having "mudgy legs" - muscular and pudgy - but lately I have seen them thinning down. Besides my legs, I have also noticed a change in my waistline. [I now also have] regular menses. I used to experience low back pain from sitting in class from 7:30-4:30pm. After practicing Bikram yoga for a a week, I noticed that dull achy pain has dissipated.

Increased balance and flexibility

Bikram yoga puts your body in different positions which aim to release tensions and emotions locked up in your muscles and skeletal system, which ultimately will lead to your success in weight loss, but more importantly success in your health. Every muscle, every organ and every tissue is being stretched, contracted and massaged during this 90 minute workout. In this class, you may experience a psychosomatic release, which may include feelings of happiness, sadness, discomfort, anxiety, etc. If your ghosts of the past sweep over you during the session, you let them go allowing your body to enter into a deeper form of relaxation.

Elements of the psychosomatic release:

Through concentration and meditation, release cellular memory and redundant habits

Through focus on breathing patterns, liberate stress and cellular memory

Through focus on posture and body language, affect your attitude and have an uplifting effect on your life

Through the balancing series, the male-female energy and left/right brain responses will balance out

Through the entire 90 minutes, enhance the flow of energy through the body's major centres determines your health and fitness.

The function of heat.

Heat is a form of energy and has an energizing effect on the body. Heat facilitates the sweating mechanism during the workout allowing the body to cool down during the 90 minutes and, at the same time, releasing of toxins from the body.

"You kill your body for 90 minutes so you don't have to kill your body for 90 years"~Bikram

.Mary

March 10' Student of the month: Ray McCall

I came to Bikram yoga in Dec 2008 because i needed a change. I was 20 lbs overweight and taking 5 different medications a day. But what i receive from my yoga practice is a amazing gift of peace and inner focus. As my body improved so did my mental state. I read now, meditate and i see clearer my place in the universe. No matter how out of control my life becomes , i can find peace on my yoga mat. Gurani Anjali writes " The yogi aims to be in peace even through circumstances are not." I try to live those words every day. As yes, I have lost 25 lbs and only take 1 medication a day. I thank the universe for placing me on this path.

.Ray

February 10' Student of the month: Lisa Sixma

I prayed for Bikram to come to Port Orange. I have practiced other styles of yoga feeling relaxed and calm afterwards, but still, there was something missing. I had an opportunity to take one Bikram yoga class years ago and knew it was what I wanted & needed. My daughters gave me a gift card to the same studio, but it had changed hands and was a hot yoga . . . not Bikram. I tried it, but knew something was still missing. The missing piece was the mind-body connection and for me, the discipline. The discipline that I had experienced as a young girl and then on-going into my twenties with ballet and competitive swimming.

My journey began in Sept. 08, for real, with Bikram yoga. I continue to grow and practice, learning more with every class-always hearing something new in the dialogue. My testimonial would be that Bikram yoga has given me my life back and at age 55, I would say that this yoga is truly the Fountain of Youth. Thank you from a humble student.

Lisa

December 09' Student of the month: Nick Frame

I hadn't accomplished anything in while that got noticed. I wasn't sure how to react [to being selected as student of the month]. I couldn't be more thrilled. Its just one more thing I've received from practicing that I wasn't expecting. Its truly been interesting considering I've never done yoga on any serious level like I am now, at how much its changed about me. I pretty much came over and wanted to try it and it just clicked. The mental stimuli from concentrating on the little details has helped me focus more in other activities and games, the core and spine strengthening have stepped up my surfing, skating, and other physical activities. I'm just able to manouver again and it is sooo nice. I can't wait to step it up some more and see what happens, its some weird sort of self inflicted torture that satisfies both sadist and massochistic natures leaving me with nothing but peace. I love it!

Nick

November 09' Student of the month: Kimberly Brandon-Hively

I'm so honored to be chosen as student of the month! I'm like a walking advertisement for Bikram yoga these days. Honestly, I tout the benefits of yoga all day, everyday, everywhere I go. I've finally found my "thing," something to replace water skiing.

I used to be a tournament water skier. It was my passion. And I did it like I do everything... obsessively. It's my personality. I ate, drank, and slept water skiing, and loved every grueling minute of it. But it took its toll on my body, and when I left (for personal reasons) I bore the scars of a battered athlete, inside and outside. And yet, I missed water skiing and I searched for years for something physical to fill that void in my life. I tried the gym, tennis, racquet ball, running, but nothing seemed a "fit" for me and most of it seemed to worsen my physical ailments rather than improve them.

Finally, one day I walked into Traci's studio with my daughter-in-law and it changed my life. I absolutely love it.

When I first started yoga I had a bad case of sciatica, torn meniscus, a torn quadricep, and undiagnosed leg and hip pain (a miserable, deep, throbbing pain in both legs). I also had terrible arthritis in my hands and tendonitis in my elbow. I was a mess! Ironically, all of my ailments were due to the terrible beating my body had taken during all those years of water skiing. And yet, I needed something to replace that physical challenge.

But soon after I started yoga, I began to realize that it wasn't the physical challenge I of water skiing that I had been missing; I missed doing something I loved.

I love practicing yoga. It makes me feel good. I leave yoga practice feeling cleansed. That's the only word I can think of that describes the feeling. And I really don't want this "testimonial" to sound like an advertisement, but the truth is after only a year of yoga: The torn meniscus is no longer an issue. I can play tennis, exercise at the gym, whatever I want. The tear will never heal, but yoga helped heal the angry tissue around the tear so that it's not all working against itself anymore, not swollen or painful. The quadricep is almost healed. If I had to pick a number I'd say it's 80% better. It rarely "acts up." My hands are strong again and I have NO pain in them. They've ached for ten years! And now no pain at all. My tendonitis is gone. It's 100% better. I couldn't even hold a tennis racquet, let alone swing it. That's all behind me. The sciatica pain still comes and goes, but it's manageable. And the ONLY thing that helps my leg/hip pain is the yoga poses that apply the "tourniquet affect." This technique of depriving blood to an area of the body and then flushing fresh, oxygen-enriched blood to the area relieves my leg and hip pain temporarily. Unfortunately, the pain slowly creeps back into my legs after yoga practice is over.

I'm healthier and stronger than ever after only a year of yoga. My only regret is not finding yoga earlier in life. But it's never too late to start. In fact, I'm seriously considering becoming a certified yoga instructor. I love it that much. It's changed my life, what else can I say?

Kimberly

August 09' Student of the month: Cathy Bair

I joined Bikram Yoga in January because I saw an article that said you burn 750 calories per session. This was the kick start I needed. I lost 12 pounds and one pant size in 2 months. As our fabulous teachers will tell you, I've come a long way since I started. My goal is to actually be able to do standing leg head to knee one day. I still can't get my locked hands under my foot but I'm getting closer.

Bikram says it takes 10 years to build a new spine; I've just completed 7 months so it might take me a little longer. My skin, my posture, my flexibility and my nails all show positive results from my practice.

The teachers are all wonderful and encouraging (even when they pick on me which is normally every class, but I know they are just trying to help me improve my practice). When I go through a class and I don't hear my name, I wonder if I was really there, only kidding. I love hearing the good jobs or good posture comments. It encourages me to try to get better on the postures that are hard for me. I also love my fellow Yogis. I have made some wonderful friends and look forward to seeing each and every one of them when I come to practice. I have become an addicted Yogi. If I can do it, so can you. See you in the hot room.

Cathy Bair

July 09' Student of the month: Vinayak Shanbhag

I started at Bikram yoga Port Orange in February. I completed the challenge in April and I am working on a new challenge.

The yoga is my exercise routine now. I try to come in everyday. It is a physically challenging series and I always feel fantastic after class. Hence, I would recommend it to anyone wishing to improve his/her physical and mental health.

The teachers here are wonderful and encouraging. They all have a positive spirit which rubs off on the class, enabling us to overcome the stifling heat.

Vinayak Shanbhag

June 09' Student of the month: Joni Feldhauser

I came to Bikram with the intent of finding a low impact workout. I had an advance case of plantar fasciitas and all my previous endeavors just made the problem worse. My doctor had given me several cortisone shots in the feet and I had expensive orthotics made but nothing helped. I had a friend tell me how beneficial Bikram had been for her husband. I couldn't wait to give it a try. I just knew this was the answer for me and I was right. I no longer have any problems with my plantar fascia. I just finished the 30 day challenge in April and I'm going strong in the month of May. I like the discipline that Bikram teaches. Oh, and I really like the clothes.

Joni Feldhauser

May 09' Student of the month: Frank Murray

Up until two years ago I was eating the standard American diet and I weighted in at 210 pounds. It was time to do something so I became a raw food Vegan and lost 40 pounds in the first 3 months. February of this year at 66 years old I was feeling great at 160 pounds, but had limited flexibility. I thought I would give Bikram Yoga a try. I have never done yoga before and did not know what to expect. It has been a great experience. My body still needs a lit of work, but I know feel like I am 40 years old. I cannot thank the staff at Port Orange enough for what Bikram Yoga has done for me.

Frank Murray

April 09' Student of the month: Chantelle Uitermark

Bikram's Yoga College of India
3510 N Nova Rd, Port Orange, Florida 32129    |    386.322.6900    |    info@bikramyogansb.com