Yesterday I had a really great class. As is often the case, a great class is triggered by an inspirational and beautifully delivered dialogue.

This time it came from one of my favourite teachers: Simi Ripper. I’ve been attending her classes in the last 7 years I’ve been practicing Bikram, and she always brings compassion and insight into her classes.

Today her theme was simple and she dived deeply and clearly into understanding the balance between; effort and overdoing it, concentration and over- thinking, between self-judgement and self-awareness. I can’t remember her exact words, I was too busy being inspired by them. And the words of wisdom came at exactly the right time: during Standing Head to Knee, a posture especially challenging/frustrating to me. During my 7 years of practice I’ve rarely, if ever achieved the full expression of this posture.

But today it was better, I focused on locking my knees, contracting my quads, I breathed into the posture, and I relaxed that extra 1%, and of course it made all the difference!

Its nice to capture and remember these moments of clarity, those little epiphanies that help us all learn these nuggets of wisdom. And its nice to give feedback to the teachers that create them. I guess they don't always know what we're thinking!