Day Twentythree

Oh the list of what not to do in Bikram has grown.

I spent the first half of the entire standing series in pain, a very strange pain that I was having difficulty deciphering. I noticed that throughout the first few minutes of class my knees were filling with a sort of burning sensation. As you know, my knees have been sore the past few days, so I was left thinking, "Oh my god, what have I done now." These types of thoughts continued for what seemed like hours and I kept returning my awareness to my breath, breathing through the sensation. The sensations were different from most joint pain I have ever felt. It was a hot burning feeling, like boiling water hot, flowing through my knee joint.

By the time we got to eagle pose, around 25 minutes in, it dawned on me. I had rubbed badger balm all over my knees this morning to soothe the ache. Well, badger balm it turns out, burns the crap out of your skin when you are sweating in an extremely hot room!

So I spent the remaining 90 minutes praying that the badger balm would sweat off and that I wouldn't accidentally rub it in my eye during all the head to knee postures!

It's pretty funny now, but I have realized that rule #2 of what not to do in Bikram Yoga is: Do not put badger balm on your skin even six hours before class. Rule #1 of course still being: Do not forget to do laundry before class, because you may end up with no pants on.