Cityzen Yoga Bristol

14/06/2022

📸 We love this snap captured by of our auditorium ahead of a performance of new ballet Like Water for Chocolate!

Inspired by .esquivel’s acclaimed Mexican novel, 's new full-length ballet is a captivating tale of forbidden passions and mysterious gifts where the central character’s emotions spill out through cooking to influence everyone around her in startling and dramatic ways.

Catch it on the Main Stage until 17 June - head to roh.org.uk for tickets!

13/10/2020

So true, now more than ever! I hope you’re all managing to practice somewhere!

We miss you 💚

The practise of Bikram Yoga can be tough at the best of times - and hard if you can't get to a studio - but never give up.

Don't make excuses for what you can't do: too stiff, too many injuries, have the wrong body shape, too tired, too old... It's all in your head.

Keep pushing, especially when it gets hard - the rewards are definitely worth it.

09/09/2020

So true! Who is missing the hot room! 🙋🏼‍♀️💚

Those 90 minutes in the hot room leave you magically cleaned, from the inside out, from your bones to skin :)

Like a fairy God Mother, Bikram Yoga will watch over you. All you gotta do is show up. They say you gotta make time for your health or you will have to make time for your sickness. Bikram Yoga will take care of your health and wellness. It will take care of every system in your body, every gland and organ, every joint, every muscle.

Show up no matter how down you feel or how stressed you are, even if you show up and lay down on your mat for the whole 90 minutes. Do the postures mentally, listen to the dialogue and visualize. Sweat it out. Enjoy the Savasanas. Just show up and the magic of the yoga will work it's way through you, for you

01/09/2020

Recognition for what we all knew anyway! 😉 🌟 💚🧘🏾‍♀️ thank you 😊

31/08/2020

Sadly, that’s namaste & goodnight from the CityZen Team. 💔😭

Thank you Karla for leading us through our last class. 💖 🧘‍♀️ 🧘‍♂️

But it’s not goodbye. The CityZen community reaches far and wide, and I have no doubt we will all see each other on a mat somewhere.

Stay in touch. 👋🏻

Let us know what you get up to. 📲

Send us your yoga photos from every corner of the world (or your living room!) 📸

We love you. ❤️

Much Love & Light to you all ###

“Change is not something that we should fear.
Rather, it is something that we should welcome.
For without change, nothing in this world would ever
grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever
move forward to become the person they’re meant to be.”
~ B. K. S. Iyengar.

13/08/2020

💚💚💚

Bikram Yoga is for every body, every type of body, every shape of body, every size of body, every color of body. No discrimination against anyone for any reason.

Our physical health problems are universal. A back pain is as dangerous to a human life in Brazil as it is to one in France. Chronic and acute illnesses don't ask for your gender or race or religion before attacking you. So when these illnesses are universal, the cure also has to be universal. When the illness doesn't discriminate then why should the cure?

The Bikram Yoga sequence is an invaluable gift to humanity. The yoga does not discriminate between who should get healing and who shouldn't. The yoga will heal anyone who practices it the right way. The yoga won’t ask if you’re a good person or a bad person or if you’re a selfish person or a selfless person. The yoga is pure from discrimination and division. The word ‘yoga’ itself means ‘union’ 🙂 Union of mind and body. When there is unity between all the systems of the body there is harmony and balance. When one system goes down it affects other systems because every system works in a genius collaboration with each other.

For example: the respiratory system can easily influence the nervous system, the nervous system can impact the digestive and excretory systems. There’s a whole cosmos inside each and every one of us with a miraculous infrastructure and a genius design. Imagine yoga as the “Human Body Manual“ for living a life full of vitality and good health. Bikram Yoga is the key to the kingdom of health. Anyone who practices Bikram Yoga the right way will get the benefits 🤩👍🏽

Besides being a healing modality (physical as well as mental) Bikram Yoga is also a practice of disciplining the mind, training the muscles, breath regulation, enhancing mental faculties of the mind and so much more. Students from all over the world have been sharing their Bikram Yoga testimonials here on Humans of Bikram Yoga and it only goes on to prove that Bikram Yoga Works!

Just like the Sun shines on all of us equally the same, Bikram Yoga heals all of us equally the same.

Bikram Yoga is for EVERY BODY! ❤

07/08/2020

When you find the perfect community, it’s hard to walk away.

I attended a few hot yoga classes Bristol Bikram Yoga (as it was called before becoming CityZen) and I realised that I’d discovered something much more than typical group fitness.

When you first sign up and the studio describes its customers as a community, you’re skeptical. You go in, you stand on a mat, and you stretch. You know everyone has different schedules and doubt that you’ll see all the same people every time you go. How much community is there going to be?

Then you start to have favourite instructors, teachers who take the time to help you improve and answer questions before or after class.

Next, you do start talking to your fellow yogis.
You forge connections. You realise it really is a community.

The early skepticism fades most delightfully.

You eventually feel comfortable talking to other regulars; this might take a few months if you’re an introvert like me.

The incredible thing about yoga is that when you find the right studio, you find a sanctuary that is always warm and supportive.

In the ideal yoga studio, you push to improve.

But if you fall over along the way, there are always people to still encourage you and not judge you.

There’s an unspoken understanding that we’re all trying to improve in some way — whether it be small or large — and there’s no shame in literally stumbling or falling sometimes.

Yoga will do more than help you with your health; it’s a thoughtful, introspective activity that will open you up to bonding with others.

I’ve made friends at my studio and I was truly surprised at how many yogis there were who I had other things in common with. Obviously, if you’re practicing yoga with someone, you’ve got some common ground.

Since yoga has a strong focus on mindfulness and concentration, after classes, most people feel more relaxed or more open. You come in with a mind lost in your chaos and leave feeling accomplished and a little more peaceful.

Doing all those heart openers may be great for the muscles in your chest, but coming together and sharing in an activity rooted in mindfulness makes people more likely to open up to each other. I’ve had dozens of surprisingly deep, thoughtful, and honest conversations with near strangers after yoga classes.

Then when life changes and you have to leave, your heart breaks.

We’re saying goodbye to our CityZen yoga studio this week. It’s a place and a community that if I could, I’d never leave.

It didn’t matter if you’re short, tall, fat, thin, black, white, brown or pink.

Even if you aren’t looking for it, in the right studio, you’ll find a community that helps you keep your spine tall and your spirits even higher.

So for now, it’s namaste, and thank you.

Thank you to Catherine, Jude, Julian & Ruth for keeping our studio alive this last year.

Thank you to the all the staff, the teachers, and most importantly, YOU, the yogi community, who make CityZen what it is.

Much Love & Light to you all ###

07/08/2020

Hey guys,

Check out your inbox for a newsletter from CityZen with studio news.

Don’t forget to check your spam if you haven’t got it!

Much love to you all. 💚

06/08/2020

We’ve been lucky enough to have the lovely Flick teach classes in our studio! We can’t wait to have her back again! 💚

Super Human: Flick

From: Scotland

Started practicing Bikram Yoga: My first Bikram Yoga class was in New York City in the Upper East Side studio, over five years ago. My lovely step mum took me there. She left and I stayed.

Favourite Posture: My favourite posture is Triangle Pose. On the days when I can drop my hips very low and find a perfect, steady balance when I look up to the ceiling, I feel so strong, confident and invincible.

Why practice Bikram Yoga:

My first (hellish) class in New York City left me feeling humbled, drained and elated. I was back at the studio the next day. And the next day. And then I looked for studios everywhere I travelled in every country. When I finally made it back home to Scotland, I immediately signed up at Bikram Yoga Glasgow. Over time, and after a few job changes, I started working there, cleaning up, reception duties and doing social media. I’m at my happiest helping people discover who they are, how wonderful their bodies can be and how healing Bikram Yoga is.

Everyone comes to Bikram Yoga with their own stories. Mine is nothing dramatic and my reassessment of my life was slow, gradual, steady - an awakening rather than a conversion. My job was stressful, I had a number of old injuries from martial arts, which I started at the age of 8. My first competition was at age 9 and I continued competing until I was in my 30s. All my major joints had been hyperextended several times, I had a severe hamstring injury that never healed, and a damaged knee that meant I was only five years away from using a walking stick. Repeated injuries and blows to the head and face led to early signs of potential sight problems, and I also developed stress-related health conditions such as anaemia and stomach ulcers. I wasn’t an easy person to be around, and I brought all of this into the Bikram studio.

I was competitive, driven and impatient, and in yoga, most of that energy went into trying to achieve the full expression of the postures, whilst making excuses for the postures I couldn’t manage. Of course, I had completely missed the point of the practice but over the space of two years or so, I found myself becoming less concerned with being a ‘perfect’ student and more interested in getting into the postures correctly: trying the right way, in other words.

I also spent more time talking to people who came to the studio, listening to their stories and taking inspiration from my teachers and studio owner and director, who continue to be great role models for me. I finally left my job and became a full time artist, developed more creativity and compassion in my daily life, and spent more time focusing on the welfare of others as part of my Bikram studio work. It finally dawned on me that I was a happier person.

I couldn’t say exactly why I went back to that second class in New York. The power of the postures and that feeling of immense achievement is wonderful. But I also love the fact that every single class is a challenge.There is always more to learn, more to work on, improvements to rejoice at, a steady measure of progress, and seeing this incredible yoga defy all logic to contort my body into postures I never thought were physically possible for someone of my small size. I have never yet found a comfort zone in a Bikram Yoga class. I’m not sure one exists, to be honest! But I also love it when my friends share with me their own achievements: the first time they reach head to knee after several years, or the first time they held standing bow for a full 30 seconds, I know how hard it has been, and the dedication it has taken for them to achieve their goals.

Ultimately, Bikram yoga allows me to be myself completely. My competitive spirit is channeled into a longer term vision of my practice, a marathon rather than a sprint. The intense focus on the postures in the challenging environment means my problems automatically disappear from my mind. After a class, everything gains a more realistic perspective - doing Bikram yoga has never made a problem worse. The group energy and the genuine warmth and affection I feel for people in the studio is wonderful, as we all recognise the struggles of getting in and out of postures. I have unlimited patience with people who really want to learn - and even more for those who don’t!

Finally, I had taught martial arts over many years and had always loved watching people develop and transform their bodies into something strong and positive. The idea that teaching Bikram Yoga could be my work for the rest of my life fills me with excitement. I trained to become a certified Bikram Yoga teacher last year. After five years of practice it felt like the most natural thing to do, and an obvious step in my progress as a person and practitioner.

Thanks to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training, I get to share that journey and joy with other people, and I hope to do so for many years to come.

05/08/2020

aon, dhà, trì, ceithir, còig, sia

Bristol CityZen Yogis get around!

From the sunny skies of Czech Republic to the green hills of Republic of Ireland!

This week, Gija has been teaching 26+2 from Limerick!

May you have good fortune throughout your days
And may shamrocks underfoot soften your way.
May the mischief of leprechauns fill your pot with gold
And may you visit Ireland once in your life, it’s beauty to behold.


@ Bristol, United Kingdom

31/07/2020

There is a beautiful quote by the Dalai Lama XIV about love and it is simply profound and profoundly simple at the same time. He says,

“Love is the absence of judgment.”

30/07/2020

27/07/2020

jedna, dva, tři, čtyři, pět, šest… Fly!

Today’s Hot 26 + 2 was brought to us from the Czech Republic, by our lovely Karla Chabinova!

Poorna-Salabhasana - शलभासन

Poorna-salabhasana is the seventh of the 12 basic Hatha yoga poses. The name comes from the Sanskrit salabha, meaning "grasshopper" or "locust," and asana, meaning "pose."

In spiritual practice, poorna-salabhasana activates the manipura (solar plexus chakra). This chakra is associated with willpower, energy and optimism. Energizing manipura through poorna-salabhasana can increase self-confidence and help the practitioner better control their emotions..
The additional mental benefits of poorna-salabhasana include:
* Cures depression
* Improves focus
* Relieves stress
* Calms the mind


@ Cityzen Yoga Bristol

26/07/2020

Woah, how did it get to Sunday evening and nearly August already!! 😱

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Just a little heads up, Hot Heavenly is taking its annual summer break this August, and will be back on the timetable in September.

Hopefully you lovely lot will all be out in the sunshine, topping up your vitamin D! 😎

Love & Light 💚

24/07/2020

B.K.S. Iyengar said, "The mind is the king of the senses and the breath is the king of the mind."

Your mind controls the five senses. The senses cannot operate without proper and clear instructions coming from the headquarters (the mind.) Your breath is basically the CEO, the President, the Principal, the one in-charge of the headquarters. So the breath controls the mind.

The breath has tremendous power. It can warm up your body and it can also cool your body down. So it can regulate the core temperature of your body. And that is just one incredible function it can perform.

In Bikram Yoga we

1. Start with Pranayama breathing to warm up the body.

2. End with Kapal Bhati breathing to cool down the body.

3. When we do sit-ups we exhale and double jerk only to inhale more in order to energize the body between the postures in the floor series.

4. For performing the asana you will hear your Bikram teachers say "eyes open, breathing normal" and that is breathing instructions for the posture; in the posture, out of the posture as well as during the posture. When you inhale you're taking oxygen. Oxygen is energy right? It is energy, it is prana, it is the life-force which energizes the body and with that energy you get strength to maintain the posture, when you exhale you release old energy which relaxes the body so you can go deeper into the posture.

So you can see how, in so many ways you train your breath to achieve certain states throughout the 90 minutes class.

I love Diane's quote, "Just breathe, everything else is optional." :)

Learn how to breathe.
Learn how to control your breath.
Learn how to use your breath.
Learn how to observe your breath.

Happy Wednesday Everybody 🙂

Pop Quiz: What is 80/20 breathing? :)

22/07/2020

Hey guys 👋🏻

We’re know you’re all eagerly awaiting the news of the studio reopening date, currently the CityZen team are working towards an August opening of the studio.

Thank you for your patience and for sticking with us!

We can’t wait to see you all!

Much love and light, namaste 🙏🏼 ### 💚

In the meantime, here is a cute picture of a chipmunk getting it’s leg behind it’s head ☺️

And don’t forget classes continue online for the time being!

19/07/2020

A Bikram Yoga class is a conversation. It is a dialogue. But someone might ask how is it a dialogue when only the teacher gets to speak for 90 minutes and the students are silently practicing? Well! ☺️ THAT'S the dialogue. That's the conversation. That's the energy exchange happening right there. It is between the teacher's words and the student's body. Which is why it has to be a standard set of precise instructions. Imagine one teacher taught her way and tomorrow another teacher taught the same sequence in an altogether different way, the student who is coming every day will be confused. Not to mention the repetition can only happen if the instructions are repeated. Repetition means doing the same thing over and over again. You don't need to find creative ways to contract your thighs. There is only way to contract your thigh muscles, you just contact your thigh muscles 😁 right? So there's nothing creative about that. So the instructions don't need to be creative either. It is just contraction of a muscle. So to keep things simple for the sake of students especially beginners, every teacher should instruct a set of instructions to get the students in and out of the posture safely. That's exactly what the Bikram Yoga Dialogue offers.

It tells you three things:
1. What to do.
2. How to do.
3. The result/effect of doing it.

It's a genius sequence taught in the most safe way that any human being on the face of the planet can practice. The focus is on alignment. That's the skeletal structure. The muscles get to work out to support that structure for going into the posture, staying in the posture and holding still and then coming out of the posture. Good stuff happening there in terms of muscle toning, improving flexibility, maintaining and maybe improving range of motion, building strength of bones and joints and muscles, testing balance, exercising mind-body coordination, breath control, muscle control ... soooooooo much happening. Like I said ... good stuff happening there 😁

So yeah! The Dialogue Works 👍🏽
It has worked for decades for millions who have been practicing all over the world.

With our current situation, teaching classes online, as much as I love and appreciate you guys joining these classes it's just not the same and we all know that. Without the heat, without the mirrors, without the exchange of energy, all the more reason for me to keep my dialogue strong so offering instructions as precise and as simple as possible because I can't really see the details of your posture. If I have ten to twenty students in tiny boxes in a Zoom room on a screen in front of me that is when I rely on the Bikram Yoga Dialogue the most. Every word is valuable information because it is teaching you what to do, how to do and the result/effect of doing it. So you go safely into the posture with proper breathing cues and proper alignment for maximum benefit and prevention of any kinds of injuries.

Yoga is meant to heal, not to injure us. Healing can only happen if yoga is practiced in the right way, in a therapeutic way. The Bikram Yoga Dialogue shows us the therapeutic way ☺️

Thank you to our Bikram Sisters and Brothers at Bikram Yoga Nairobi - Kenya, for sharing this picture of their Utkatasana 👊🏽😁 WOW! ✨