I first came along to a Bikram Yoga class in 1996 because I lived a life of stress and worry. From my first class I have never looked back – I loved the fitness and mental peace that Bikram Yoga gave me and the longer I practiced, the more I realised how much this amazing yoga was changing my life.

I trained to become a Bikram teacher in 1997 and opened my first school in Harbord the following year. In 2001 we moved to our beautiful school in Brookvale. Bikram Brookvale is now one of the longest running and most successful Bikram Yoga schools in the world. I truly believe this is because of the amazing community that has built up around the school – it is a very special and welcoming place.

Bikram Yoga teaches the same 26 postures in every class, giving everyone a chance to grow and learn so much about their own body, mind and life. I love watching the life-changing effects this yoga has on people. One of its most remarkable features is the power it has to change your whole attitude to life and bring a more relaxed, positive and serene outlook. It has been so rewarding to find that the longer I teach, the more I fall in love with Bikram Yoga. I am now Bikram’s senior teacher in Australia yet I continue to grow and learn through my own practice and through all my students. Bikram Yoga makes you look and feel fantastic – it keeps you youthful, happy and stress-free. I truly believe that this school makes the world a better place.

Yoga is my strength, my health, and my life. While suffering a long five-year illness, I discovered Bikram Yoga and it changed my life. It is the most powerful universal tool in the pursuit of truly wholistic health and personal growth.

Inspired by the practice, I studied yoga teacher training at Nature Care College for two years and completed Bikram teacher training in June 2003.

Now I can share my love of the practice, and the benefits of the practice, with you, the students, and say 'Hey' don't be sick, tired, unfit, discouraged by life - come and empower with yoga - Enjoy!

I had practiced Hatha Yoga since my arrival in Australia (1999) and found it physically lovely, but not very challenging. I thought Bikram Yoga might be just the challenge I needed – and I was right! You never forget your first class! I remember being filled with awe and wonderment at the people bending and stretching in front of me – all  with ‘happy smiling faces’ - I seemed to be the only one with a face as red a as beetroot, absolutely exhausted by eagle pose!!! I was so inspired I came back the next day. I was hooked!

Working as a graphic Designer, usually bent over a desk and key board, I had started to develop Chronic pains in my neck – the yoga, the heat and the fantastic support from  the Brookvale’s  Bikram Yoga College’s fabulous teachers – I was well on my road to repair. I was so inspired by what I had experienced and hearing other peoples experiences, that I decided to look into becoming a teacher. After a long and inspiring chat with Jodie, I bit the bullet and flew to LA and to be honest – have never looked back. It was a truly enlightening experience. Life changing.

Bikram Yoga really is for everybody. To quote the man himself ‘You are never too old, it is never to late, you are never to sick – to start again’ and it is true. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe in, what your level of fitness or flexibility is – the magic of this process is that it works no matter WHO you are! I feel very honoured and privileged to be part of such a phenomenon!

Lara is also an artist and illustrator. Her work can be viewed at:
www.curldesign.com.au
www.prickie.com
www.redbubble.com.au
www.thecartepostale.com
Email Lara on lara@curldesign.com.au for any further questions.

My first taste of Bikram Yoga was at a time (97) when my exercise routine consisted of weight lifting at the gym and a basic Hatha yoga class. I had been training at the gym for ten years (including sessions with a personal trainer for the last year). I was looking for a more challenging form of yoga so I tried several different styles – as I discovered, there was nothing to compare to Bikram’s Yoga! I was lucky enough to begin my practice at the first Bikram’s Yoga school in Australia and followed the locations, growth and progress from there. Before long I was off to LA to train with Bikram and finished teacher training in April 99.

While overseas, I taught in California, London, Thailand and back to LA, where I had the amazing & challenging experience of teaching Bikram, his wife Raj and their two children in a regular class, can you believe it???

Returning to Australia I studied yoga philosophy with Sri Rama Acharya and also began studying for a diploma of Shiatsu (including the practice of Ki yoga) to compliment my career as a remedial massage therapist. In addition I started teaching Bikram’s pre natal yoga (a modified version) as well as giving private and corporate classes.

Since then I have travelled and taught in Hawaii, USA and London further enhancing my teaching experience. In 2004 I completed yoga teacher training in Pune, India with Dharmavirsingh adding a different perspective to Bikram’s training.

As a teacher, I feel honored and privileged to share my passion and knowledge with you, as it is your dedication and growth that inspires me to further mine. With optimism and excitement, I look forward to continuing the journey of growth together on the yoga path.

The first week I attended Bikram Yoga at Brookvale Jodie told me she had a feeling about me, that Bikram Yoga would change my life. To say I was sceptical would be an understatement, I came to yoga to get into shape and maybe sweat out some toxins, not change my life. Anyway my life was perfect, wasn't it? That very same week I had begun my career, the one I spent four years with an honours degree to obtain. My life was on track I had the dream graduate role in a prestigious architecture firm. As the year progressed however my ?dream? life seemed to be unravelling. To everyone else it looked like I had it all, which made the fact that I was so unhappy even more distressing. The only thing that seemed to be holding it all together was the yoga and so I came to Bikram whenever I could.  

Coming to Yoga soon become the most rational thing in my life and suddenly the grand plans I had mapped out for myself became nonsensical, probably because for the first time in my life a had started living in the present. So live in the present I did and took myself off to teacher training in January 2004. After training I went to live in London and began teaching under the guidance of some of Bikram's most experienced and well regarded teachers. I returned to Sydney in December 2004 and began teaching at Brookvale, my home studio straight away. Never in a million years did I think I would become a Bikram Yoga teacher but I did and I love it, which makes me basically a pretty happy and contented person. So to bring you back to the opening line of this introduction, Jodie was right, Bikram yoga changed my life and what a relief!

Hi, my name is Phiona. I did my first Bikram Yoga class one fateful autumn day in 2002. I remember clearly the horror that overwhelmed me when I first stepped into the yoga room. It was hot and kind of stinky. My face screwed up with disdain and I thought to myself, "What ungodly activity could possibly take place in this inferno? Is it too late to bolt for the door?" Too late. The teacher arrived and before I knew it I was flapping my arms about hopelessly in my very first attempt at Pranayama breathing. Before I knew what was happening I was swept away on a bodily tour de force that had me sweating, stretching and breathing in a way I’d never imagined possible. The class finished, I came outside and liquefied on the floor in a puddle of sweat and knew then, that I was completely, irrevocably in love with Bikram’s Yoga.

Since 2002, life has rolled by as it does. Things, people and places have come and gone, however Bikram’s Yoga is the one thing that has remained constant. It’s my rock. Bikram Yoga makes me shine, it keeps me happy, healthy and humble. In 2006 I did my Teacher Training course in LA. I am not sure how to convey how much I love teaching Bikram’s Yoga except to stress that I really, really love it! Getting the opportunity to watch all our students come to class and work their little butts off and transform their bodies, health and mindscapes is one of the greatest sources of inspiration in my life. Although I’m an alignment tyrant, I teach from the heart and always encourage students to use the class to find peace, surrender their worries and allow themselves to be nurtured by the amazing practice of Bikram Yoga.

My love of Bikram yoga inspired me to do the teacher training in LA in 2003. A couple of years later I travelled to India where I studied under a self-taught yogi for 8 months. Whilst there, the healing power of backbending was further affirmed, I learnt more about yogic philosophy, and the place of hatha yoga in a much broader context of yoga than what tends to be perceived in the west.

It is often said that everyone eventually returns to the Bikram style and this is true for me also. There is something very special about the yoga that is hard to express in words, I just know it is very close to my heart and I would like to share it with others. It never ceases to amaze me how the act of focusing and moulding one’s body into a posture can reveal a whole universe – to be explored and charted beneath your own skin.

I know that however I feel (physically, emotionally, mentally etc.) I can stand with my feet on the line, practice my yoga, and come out the other side with a completely different perspective on things. It’s powerful stuff and sometimes I forget just how much it has revealed to me about myself, about others, and how it continues to help me navigate the undulations that is life. It is an incredible journey...enjoy it...and (as they say in India) "it’s a long way to Delhi"... Keep going...

Life's pretty cool as a student; that teacher training stuff's not for me!

Or so I thought. But that was in an old life; in another body.
I had been sweating, stretching and aching Bikram-style for six years when I acknowledged the metamorphosis. Originally an habitual stress-head, my new colours included peace, fulfilment, acceptance, contentment and self-love. But not yoga teaching!...

...until I realised that a butterfly cannot continue to do a caterpillar's job.

The newly acquired wings needed wind and purpose.

So here I am: as delicate and vulnerable as the rest of us, with a passion for sharing the wonders of life on the breeze of enlightenment's journey.