“Just Breathe, Everything else is optional”

What is Bikram Yoga and why have I practiced it nearly everyday since my start over 10 years ago? Bikram Yoga is set sequence of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. The class is always 90 minutes long and should be done in a room with hot and humid conditions. 

Flashback to mid-2015. I’d spent the past 4 years avoiding my feelings about the death of Bryan’s’ youngest brother Nathan just a short 5 days after we were married. In those years and leading up to 2015, I spent most of my days pounding the pavement, running from my problems. If I wasn’t running, I was obsessing about food or what my body looked like. If I wasn’t running, I was thinking about when I’d take my next run. My career as an Academic Advisor and Adjunct Professor at Cleveland State University was stressful. Everyday, on my way to work, I would pass Bikram Yoga Cleveland at Fairmount Circle. I wondered what it was, but never considered yoga to be something I’d ever want or need to try.

The summer of 2015, I was diagnosed with a mood disorder called Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). Essentially, when most women have hormone chemicals moving up through a channel in their brain, mine move down. This leads to a substantial reaction to the hormonal changes that take place within my body. Prior to my diagnosis, I impulsively resigned from career at CSU, I tried to divorce my wonderful partner Bryan (your new favorite yoga teacher!), and I attempted suicide more than once. 

A final terrible night of no sleep and racing thoughts led me to check myself into Laurelwood Hospital in Willoughby. I spent one week in intensive outpatient therapy there. It was during that week, someone suggested I give yoga a try. I did a simple google search: “What style of yoga is good for depression and anxiety?” Wouldn’t you know it, Bikram Yoga Cleveland at Fairmount Circle was the first option to pop-up! I will be forever grateful to Jeannine LoConti for taking the leap to open Bikram Yoga Cleveland. If not for Jeannine and her own passion, my story would read very different

My first class? It was so very hot and humid. I couldn’t do very much at all. I was nauseated. I was stuck in that room for 90 minutes with my own racing thoughts. It was so very different from running. While running allowed me to avoid my thoughts and feelings by pushing them down and, quite literally, running from them, Bikram Yoga made me turn inward and observe (and judge very harshly, at first) my thoughts and feelings.

That night, I slept! I slept through the night for the first time in over 6 months. My anxiety was still there, but a little less. I was sad, but a little less. I knew then and even during my first class, I would practice this yoga forever. Do I still have not so great days? Sure! We all do. My life outside of the Hot Room is beautiful and filled with physical vitality, mental clarity, and emotional stability in an indescribable way. Always progress, never perfection.

It was only a few years into my practice, I decided I wanted to teach and help others achieve their own success and write their own Bikram yoga story! I attended Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in the Fall of 2018 and never looked back! 

I’ve taught in many studios throughout the world and there is one constant. Bikram Yoga works if you work it! The stories of miracles in the “Hot Room” are endless. “I’m less angry and less reactive”, “I can put my socks on”, “I no longer need a knee replacement”, “I stopped needing my medication”. 

As you continue or embark on your own Bikram Yoga journey, always remember:

“Just breathe, everything else is optional”

Love and sweat, 

Sarah