A little over three years ago I signed up for 30 days of unlimited Bikram Yoga. I don’t remember why I did it, there must have been a promotion of some kind because yoga is not cheap and it is not something I can normally afford. I enjoyed it, sort of, and opted to stay on their mailing list in case I ever decided I wanted to sign up for it again and miraculously had the money to spend on it lol.
Last week I got an email newsletter from them talking about all sort of things and at the bottom there was a blurb about how they are looking for Karma Cleaners.
Basically, they are looking for people who are willing to volunteer to help clean the yoga studio and in exchange they get free yoga classes. A lot of yoga studios do this and I’ve been meaning to look in to it for a while now but never got around to it. Well, there was nothing to look in to since they had emailed me (and everyone else on their mailing list) about it so before I could talk myself out of it I shot off an email asking if there were still spots available.
I got a response and eventually ended up with an interview this past Tuesday. 🙂
On the drive to the yoga studio I went to take a sip of water and managed to spill it all over my shirt and my lap, classic me, sigh. Luckily it was a warm day and my shirt managed to dry fairly fast. The pants though, um, not so much. They were black so it wasn’t obvious they were wet but lemme tell ya, sitting in an interview with damp pants, not comfy!
It was a really informal interview, I think if we hadn’t of gotten along she would have said she’d think about it or something along those lines but we did get along, my availability fit with what days they had openings and well, that was that, I start next Tuesday. 🙂
It seems like a pretty good deal to me, I will clean for a little under two hours a week, all in one session. I’ll be the only one there so I can listen to my music and dance around like a weirdo when cleaning (cause that’s how I roll) and it won’t matter. Also, the studio room will have just had a class in it and right when I am done another class will be starting so the room will be at the hot temperature it is at when the class is in session, which means I am gonna sweat like crazeeeeee! I’m looking at this as an opportunity to not only get an extra fitness session in to my week with the actual yoga class I will take but get an additional almost two hours of activity in to my week with the cleaning. Finding out the room will be at its hot temperature made me want to do this even more lol
I was warned to bring water and to be careful to stay hydrated, also, I was told to wear whatever I want because by the end of my cleaning session my clothes will be soaked with sweat, ew, but yay? lol I’m allowed to use the showers that are there when I am done so I don’t have to leave there looking all sweaty and gross, which is nice.
I’m not a huge fan of cleaning, but I’m hoping when I get in to the routine of being there every Tuesday afternoon it’ll just become another one of the random things I do in a week, shrug. The lady I interviewed with said most of their Karma Cleaners stay with them for quite a while, as in years, they love that they get the free classes and the cleaning isn’t that hard or time consuming.
The two options I had were (1) clean for one session a week and get one free yoga class a week or (2) clean for two sessions a week and get unlimited yoga classes. I chose the one cleaning session a week because I don’t want to over commit. Also, even if I had unlimited yoga classes I don’t think I’d be able to fit them in all that often so it’d be kinda wasted on me. For now I am perfectly content to try to find time for one class a week. 🙂 I was told if I ever wanted to change that and clean twice so I could get the unlimited classes to let them know and they’d find a second cleaning shift for me.
So there we have it, I have officially added another fitness activity to my week, and one I have to stick with because I made a commitment, not one I can shrug off when I don’t feel like it, which for me is a good thing because I excel at talking myself out of exercising lol 😛
Bikram Yoga, bring it on! 🙂
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 
That sounds awesome. You’re doing a great thing! I love bikram yoga and I know how expensive it is so props to you for doing something in return for a class.
It seemed like such a good deal I couldn’t pass it up, even if the idea of adding bikram yoga to my weekly routine is a bit daunting lol