06/09/2025
Take time to read 🤓
A Bikram student from Holland talks about her experiences with Bikram Yoga and rheumatoid arthritis.
Bikram Yoga with the heat and its fixed sequence is the healer in so many ways 🙏
Testimonial - Bikram Yoga and rheumatoid arthritis
In my early 40’s, I received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. It wasn’t a shock as I had spent many months in acute pain by then. Quite quickly I looked up what I could do for myself on several levels and Bikram Yoga came up number one regarding movement.
I still remember my first class - I had decided to push through whatever would happen and to never let go, however hard it could be over the years. And it was hard right at the start - I wasn’t a very physically active person then.
Right away Bikram classes became a lifeline for me. At first it was more about survival - knowing there was something I could do that would help me in the long run. Even if it was a day with lots of joint pain and I could only do a fourth of the class, it was so much better than not moving. When I didn’t go enough (up to 4 times a week at first), I could feel my joints becoming stiffer and stiffer, I could move less and less.
When I started to be able to follow a class without thinking too much anymore, my practice evolved. It became a great way to monitor my body and how I was doing - I wasn’t tempted to disconnect from my body and my felt sensations anymore (which experiencing chronic pain tends to lead to), I could actually get close and witness the changes, in a safe place.
In the last few years, I learnt something else by practicing Bikram Yoga at Become Yoga Amsterdam : to focus on what I can do. When I cannot move my shoulders, I can still practice my balance and the strength in my legs. When my feet hurt, I can still aim at seeing the floor in Camel.
While I now have a mean Standing Bow posture when standing on my left leg, my only job right now in the same posture on the other side is to succeed in grabbing my foot from the inside - I am completely ok with that, and anything I can do more is a cherry on the cake.
It really helped me accept what is, while working on changing what I can change.
The picture I chose is a great reminder of how Bikram Yoga classes serve me. I was about 4 days out of the hospital after an emergency open shoulder surgery. I was told with hard work I could recover 75/80% of my shoulder. With hard work and Bikram Yoga, I recovered about 95%. Money in the bank often says Rick, proven right 😉
Today my Bikram Yoga practice is about always coming back to the hot room, meeting my body where it stands that day, without expectation - with the warm support of Therese, Rick and their team.
I feel lucky to have that !
