1) Spend a minimum of �5 on shopping in Sainsbury's Chiswick. 

This can be done before or after your class at BYC.

2) Practise a class at BYC.

3) After your class at BYC, collect an orange numbered BYC Parking Voucher from BYC reception.

4) Present your BYC Parking Voucher at Sainsbury's Customer Service desk, along with your Sainsbury's shopping receipt & white Sainsbury's Parking Card, for parking validation.

Please note: this is only valid during Sainsbury's Customer Service opening hours.

Maximum stay: 3hrs.  �50 fine payable on exceeding 3hrs.

If the barriers happen to be up at Sainsbury's, please continue exactly as described above and still only stay for a maximum of 3hrs. On these occasions, pop a BYC timetable on the dashboard of your vehicle, so it is visible to the parking wardens.

In order to keep this collaboration into the future, please always treat the staff at Sainsbury's kindly.

Please note: parking is the responsibility of students coming to practise. Please refrain from parking in the courtyard area outside the studio (this area does not belong to us) and please be mindful not to double park on the street outside, so that the market stall holders have constant access onto Essex place.

There are other areas behind the High Road, where meter parking is available, so you may also want to consider this option.

Otherwise, there are great transport links close by: 

Tubes at Chiswick Park and Turnham Green. 

Overground Trains at Chiswick Station and Gunnersbury.

Buses 27, 272, 237, 267, 391, H91, E3 and 440

pass right in front of the studio, on Chiswick High Road.

Namaste

However, if the challenge for a new student is to go through the class itself (we've all been there), the challenge for the friend/relative/partner introducing them, is to do their own yoga and not their friend's!

Of course, it's understandable. We want them to have a nice time. We want them to do it right and get the most out of their experience.

But, let's be honest, can you really have a 'nice' time in a Bikram class? Not really... Regardless whether your friend shows you how to cross your arms in Eagle or not. You might have an INCREDIBLE, LIFE-CHANGING, WONDROUS time, that makes you say, at the end of class: 'I've never done anything so hard in my life... It was actually fun!!' But not a'nice' time.

It wasn't like that for us in our first class, why should it be different for them in theirs? It's part of the process.

So, when we are introducing someone new to Bikram yoga, we must embrace our challenge and let them get on with theirs.

Interacting with people to show them some funky moves, is not helpful to us or to them, for various reasons.

It's not helpful to us, because, whether we admit it or not, talking or gesticulating to our friend - whilst we 'inconspicuously' mouth "T H I S  I S  H O W  Y OU  D O  I T..!" - is a way for us to let our mind wonder out of our class and stop dealing with whatever unpleasant sensation or experience we might be going through. And if we do that, we miss out on the opportunity to grow stronger.

It's not helpful to them, because, first of all, if they're listening to us standing next to them, they're not listening to the teacher, so we're actually making their life harder.

And also, they have the right to be wrong too. Just like we were in our first class. And just how we probably still are in our 10982735th class..! Being wrong and realising it for ourselves, is the only true way to get it right. The reason why the teacher is not correcting them, is not that they haven't seen them or they're not taking care of them: it's because they're letting them learn gradually. There's no point in correcting or addressing a new person on everything wrong they do... Class would last two days and the new person would probably feel overwhelmed and quite embarrassed to be constantly singled out. Usually, as long as they're not in danger of injuring themselves by busting some crazy move, students on their first class are best left in peace, just providing some positive encouragement, from time to time. Because, ultimately, if they're trying their best... Then they ARE doing it right!! Like everyone else.

So, if we really want to help our friends in their first class, the best way to do it is to be even more focused, even more in the moment, listening even closer to the teacher's instructions and work even harder.

Let's lead by example. Let's show them how it's done, by doing it ourselves, with even more commitment and dedication. Let's share the class, by experiencing it together, rather than interacting with each other and missing it.

Then, after the 90 minutes, after final Savasana, outside the yoga room, we can go crazy: let's talk, recount, ask and explain to our heart's content. Chances are, we're now even closer friends.