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Global Yoga
San Francisco
2425 Chestnut Street | S.F. | Ca.| 94123
tel. 415.292.9774 email. globalyoga@yahoo.com
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Yoga's Bad Boy: Bikram Choudhury
He sells Rolls Royces in Beverly Hills, hobnobs with Hollywood glitterati, and claims that he alone teaches true hatha yoga.
By Loraine Despres
Bikram's "Miracles"
The most impressive asanas at the Hawaii retreat are those of Mary Jarvis, who taught at Bikram's Yoga College of India in San Francisco for 10 years before a car smashed into her and she almost died. Her surgeon cautioned her against any physical exercise. Under his guidance, she stayed in bed, popping pain pills, taking cortisone, and gaining weight. After six months she went back to her doctor, deeply depressed and still in so much pain she couldn't raise her arms. This time he suggested fusing her spine. Mary asked if she'd ever get her flexibility back. The doctor couldn't guarantee it. Could he promise she'd be pain-free? He couldn't guarantee that either. So Mary headed back to the yoga school where she'd practiced and taught for 10 years.
Mary Jarvis has been a student of Bikram and teaching Bikram Style Yoga for 23 years. She is an excellent illustrator of technique and a boundless source of Yoga inspiration. As a survivor of a near fatal auto accident, Mary is living proof of the powers of Bikram Yoga.
To relieve chronic pain from herniated discs in her spine, Mary practices this yoga daily rather than opting for surgery, Prednisone and pain killers. Steadfast in her belief in the power of this Yoga she tries to live life free of pain and express herself through Yoga with kindness, grace,and love.
"In January of 95, I came back to yoga wearing a neck brace and a back brace, weighing 159 pounds, barely able to move, in incredible 24 hour chronic pain, and very very depressed. I practiced this yoga every day for 2 years to avoid surgery, and demonstrated to my students that you can lose weight and heal yourself with this Bikram yoga practice".
This yoga is preventative medicine. A process by which the individual can reverse the effects of poor posture and chronic ailments. In a relatively short period of time with regular practice, the body WILL transform itself, gaining in strength, stamina and flexibility....and ...You CAN change the shape of your body!
"I know what it's like to practice this yoga being 40 pounds overweight , in incredible pain, barely able to move... and I know how to get out of it. There is not anything unique about me. Anyone and everyone can do what I have done."
There are 43, soon to be 45, yoga schools in this country and Europe that were started by students who originally practiced with Mary at Global Yoga!
MARY IN THE NEWS - An article in Yoga Journal featuring Mary’s story as a testament to the power of Bikram Yoga.
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