A Demonstration is Coming

One of the interesting things about Bikram yoga is that there is a competitive aspect to it.  It is something that causes me a bit of guilt in my practice because in my understanding, yoga should not be competitive.  This lack of competition is one of the things that initially drew me to yoga.  I'd spent so many years of my life competing in the theatre world.  I was so sick of it all: competing for parts, competing for attention, competing to be heard in a room full of charismatic people.  Finding an arena of my life in which I did not have to compete was such a relief, and ultimately my yoga practice served as a safe haven in which I could truly be myself without having to think about whether or not I was better than someone else at thing A, B, or C. Yoga was a place where I could deeply concentrate on myself, and to do that I did have have to compete.
However, Bikram would say otherwise.  He would say that for thousands of years, yogis in India competed with one another in their postures.  He would also tell you that if you ever hope to get better in your practice, you must compete with yourself.  And, why does it matter whether or not one excels in his or her practice?  Well, with deeper opening and discovery in the asanas (postures) comes deeper opening and discovery in the mind and self. Competition is also a basic human instinct that motivates and inspires us to excel in this way. Because of this, every year Bikram yogis all of the world compete in the Yoga Asana Championship and someone somewhere is crowned champion. Here are this years USA National Champions:

I guess this whole competition thing is getting to be a big deal in the Bikram community because Bikram Yoga Durham is holding a mock "competition" in a few weeks.  They are calling it a "demonstration" because no one will actually be judging per se, unless you count watching and comparing as judging.  It will be conducted the same way a real competition would be; for example...

Well, you don't think I would explain all of this to you with a punchline, do you?  Here's the punchline, friends:  I will be participating in the yoga demonstration.

I'm a little nervous.  Not only because people will be watching me and silently judging me, but also because I will most likely have to reactivate some competitive part of my being to participate.  This, no doubt, will be like unleashing a starving beast that has been shackled deep within the dark dungeons of my ego.  Once unchained, who knows what will happen?