Om Tapas
Sweat. Just sweat. You will learn the heat is your friend. Stretch, stretch beyond what is comfortable. You want to feel pain.
The room is full and hot with so many people stood inches apart on toweled mats. Holding yoga positions is aerobic exercise in this heat. Men who look like they could be lawyers or businessmen struggle to bend over their paunch while a woman who is painfully thin bends back until her whole body is in a hook-like arc. It draws water from everyone, even the most fit, the teacher on the platform who endured classes three times a day for 30 days in order to earn her certificate.
A woman in a sportsbra and tiny shorts holds a leg in the air in a half cartwheel, dripping over her towel as though she, herself, was a light fabric being squeezed.
The room is at 42 degrees, and there are thirteen postures more to complete.
Outside temperatures are also steamy. It's not weather one can feel comfortable in a suit or high-heeled shoes. People walk the sidewalks with deliberate steps as if to minimize the effort. But in this second floor studio, the sweatier, the better.
Buenos Aires' only Bikram yoga studio draws thousands to its daily classes; in a city where beauty and youth are paramount, where losing calories or reducing the intake of calories is achieved with strong, caffeinated tea and cigarettes, it is a rare opportunity to sweat freely.
In Sanskrit, tapas, a symbolic word for heat, implies suffering, mortification, asceticism, but also the ecstasy of the yogi. Purity.
The emotions pour out too. Anxiety, sadness fall to the floor in heavy drops like summer rain.
The room is full and hot with so many people stood inches apart on toweled mats. Holding yoga positions is aerobic exercise in this heat. Men who look like they could be lawyers or businessmen struggle to bend over their paunch while a woman who is painfully thin bends back until her whole body is in a hook-like arc. It draws water from everyone, even the most fit, the teacher on the platform who endured classes three times a day for 30 days in order to earn her certificate.
A woman in a sportsbra and tiny shorts holds a leg in the air in a half cartwheel, dripping over her towel as though she, herself, was a light fabric being squeezed.
The room is at 42 degrees, and there are thirteen postures more to complete.
Outside temperatures are also steamy. It's not weather one can feel comfortable in a suit or high-heeled shoes. People walk the sidewalks with deliberate steps as if to minimize the effort. But in this second floor studio, the sweatier, the better.
Buenos Aires' only Bikram yoga studio draws thousands to its daily classes; in a city where beauty and youth are paramount, where losing calories or reducing the intake of calories is achieved with strong, caffeinated tea and cigarettes, it is a rare opportunity to sweat freely.
In Sanskrit, tapas, a symbolic word for heat, implies suffering, mortification, asceticism, but also the ecstasy of the yogi. Purity.
The emotions pour out too. Anxiety, sadness fall to the floor in heavy drops like summer rain.
Comments
Post a Comment