1. “Just Let Go…Zero Expectations!”
Lessons Learned from Mary Jarvis’s Posture Clinic at BikramAlexandria.com February 14, 2015
By Patricia Gavin
hen I first heard of Mary Jarvis it
was after Teacher Training in
Spring 2014. Brett Grigsby who
was an original member of the Jedi Club of
Backbenders and one of my instructors gave
me the book “Hell Bent” by Benjamin Lorr.
Mary Jarvis was mentioned in “Hell Bent”
(St. Martins Press, 2012) with her studio in
the Mission District of San Francisco. As a
San Francisco State University graduate and
having been married in the Presidio in the
80s my regret is I had not discovered Mary
Jarvis in the 80s while in college instead of
after my military service in 2014 with the
loss of my spouse.
In Tuladandasana Posture there is a line in
the Bikram Dialogue that encourages a
person to make up their mind to use their
Bengal Tiger Strength and English Bulldog
Determination in the first 10 seconds of the
posture because it is shorter than other
postures and if you are late….it is over!
Luckily, although it took me 40 years to get
to Mary Jarvis’ Posture Clinic, it was not
over when I arrived 15 minutes early to
claim a space in the back row!
She taught a Friday and Saturday class
followed by Posture Clinic and I enrolled in
the Saturday noon to 2:30 class. When I
arrived at the studio at 11:45 a.m. the class
was packed. I was advised to take a spot on
the backline with the other instructors. I laid
my mat out in the very back corner of the
room.
We call it the “Cry Corner” where there are
only two lines and the ceiling is lower and
some believe the heat is higher. It is usually
darker in the Cry Corner, but not today with
the room full of anticipation for the class.
Beside me was Mister. “M.” Mister “M”
was a regular and had been in class behind
me previously.
In Bikram yoga everyone sweats, but Mister.
“M” --- well standing next to him in yoga
class was like walking through the Amazon
Rainforest. He literally was a fountain
during class and his practice was strong.
There were no other spaces left when he laid
his mat down beside me since I had chosen
the corner. I was just happy I had brought
an extra towel!
Mary Jarvis introduced herself and the
correct means of Pranayama breathing
before she started her instruction on the
Twenty Six and Two breathing exercises.
W

2. “No “Darth Vader” breathing! No spitting!”
she said. “No ujjayii breathe (with lips
closed) because on exhale we open the
mouth in Pranayama! Just use the back of
your throat with the nose and mouth only
passageways! Collectively we began the
class with our long, slow inhales to a count
of six while looking in the mirror which
were followed by the six second long slow
exhales as our heads dropped back and
elbows reaching forward and together like
the proverbial Pez Dispensers that
discharged candies as kids.
It occurred to me during class that our
bodies were like big oxygen sponges in the
heated environment of the studio where
when atmospheric pressure (sea level) stays
the same, but the temperature rises, so does
the gas (oxygen) in the room. When we
finished our second set of Pranayama
breathing, Mary Jarvis described how the
exercise builds internal body heat and the
breathe releases tension in the body while it
diminishes headache pain, relieves sinus
pressure and decrease phlegm. Pranayama
fills the lungs and then acts as a gentle
masseuse of internal organs as the oxygen
floods the circulatory system and fills the
capillaries with oxygen to heal the body
from the inside out…bones to skin.
I was ready for class having had a good
night’s rest and I wanted to be fresh to take
in the “pearls” of wisdom from Mary Jarvis
who has taught for more than 40 years.
From Pranayama Breathing we went to Half
Moon and stretched our torso towards the
ceiling and decompressed our spines with
backbends and Hands to Feet Pose. After
two sets, she then took us through
Utkatasana or Chair Pose” and through
Eagle Posture. I was anticipating “Party
Time” which is a break to drink water
afterwards, but I was surprised as she did
not encourage the water break after Eagle
Posture.
Mary Jarvis cautioned us about water
consumption and commented about how
wrater bottles did not enter the studio until
the mid-1990s. She does not encourage
people to drink before Triangle especially
because her opinion is that it was more
difficult to perform if the stomach is full and
bloated with water. So after Eagle we
immediately went on to Standing Head to
Knee after a short stillness without the
customary water break. Then on to Bow
Pulling Posture where she aligned hand,
shoulder, armpit and crouch with abdomen
and hips parallel to the floor. She
encouraged form before depth in each
posture and reminded us that there should be
an honesty and ease to the practice that is
not there if your breathing is irregular, so
you should not push beyond your depth.
Giving compliments to students in the class,
Mary guided the class through the balancing
to stretching postures and Triangle Posture.
She slowed down delivery of the dialogue in
Triangle to really open the chest up before
instructing us to drop the hips down with
femur parallel to the floor and stretching the
arms to ceiling and toes. In Triangle she
emphasized the top arm should be in line
with the ear and profile “exactly visible in
the mirror” and to really open up the chest
before lowering the hips.
We worked on Separate Leg Stretching and
she encouraged locked knees, bending from
the hips with straight spines and weight in
the toes, so the head will eventually touch
the floor between the feet as the spine comes
into alignment and hamstrings stretch. After
she was injured by a cab, Mary healed her
spine through the Bikram yoga with
backbends so she is considered an expert
when it comes to the spine and yoga.

3. Mary spoke about yoga as not just physical
hatha yoga, but also as a form of medicine
and moving meditation. She explained there
are as many types of yoga as people and that
she encouraged people in her classes to
work at their own pace through their own
pain and grief in their practice. She
explained her induction into the world of
“raj” or mental yoga by a Christian mystic
whose first instruction was that she could
not talk for a week. Her second instruction
was that she could not speak if she included
any words of hate in her speech as in “I hate
...(this or that).”
Mary shared her belief in the Power of the
Word and recited the first few lines in
Genesis.
“In the beginning there was the word…and
then there was light,” Mary whispered
softly.
She shared how she abolished politics from
her studio when a student wanted to post an
“Abortion Rights” poster and she refused to
allow it. She commented on the many
marriages among her students who she
encouraged to socialize and date. She also
talked about healing broken hearts and
recovering from lost “soul mates” through
the yoga!
During Posture Clinic Mary explained how
the yoga helped her grieve the loss of her
father and her own challenges afterwards.
She spoke about how diet can influence your
practice and emphasized how sugar and
gluten (rice, pasta and bread) can cause the
bloating in the body especially during
periods of grief. In a self-deprecating
manner she described how adding Coca
Cola to her diet (16) had created weight
challenges and related how she had mourned
the recent loss of her father.
“My father had checked himself into the
hospital for a triple by pass surgery, without
telling any of his children,” she said. “He
didn’t want us to worry and that was the
type of guy he was; so I asked him to wait
and I would be on a red-eye flight and there
in the morning.”
Mary saw her father and sat in Lotus by his
side in the hospital until she was able to take
him home. She received a call from Bikram
Choudhury who told her simply that she
could mourn, but that she would only be
able to do so for a short period and then
because her life is dedicated to healing she
would have to “Let go.”
After arriving home from the hospital Mary
and her father pulled into the drive in the
moonlight It was late evening and she
realized she could not lift his 210 frame by
herself. Instead she decided to wait and stay
with him under the stars in the car where
they both fell asleep. When Mary awoke
her father was gone and she was left with
the task of explaining his passing to her
mother.
Like many I was filled with expectations
when Mary Jarvis came to teach a Posture
Clinic, but what she delivered was more
than I expected: She taught me how to
release those expectations and “Let Go.” In
Savasana we are taught to transition from
one posture to another and remain in
stillness. We ask ourselves “Who am I?”
Many miss the chance to “Let Go” and
connect with the Infinite and put aside those
expectations. When we do, we realize we
never really lose anyone because when they
leave us they become a part of the Infinite to
which we are all connected. So when we
“Let Go” in Savasana, it is a chance to
connect with the Infinite, to let go of
expectations and an effort to shape the world
as we wish it to be; we see it clearly as it is!

4. When we see the world without expectation,
some call that the release of ego and
expectations and increase in awareness that
is the “Third Eye”.
“Zero expectation!” Bikram Choudhury
often exclaims when he talks about what
you should expect when you come into the
yoga studio. In other words, the yoga
practitioner is asked to “let go” of
expectations when they enter the room and
just accept themselves and others at
whatever stage they are at in their life or
practice.
I expected Mary Jarvis to have high
standards and expectations of the students in
her class and to push them, but she admitted
to be that kind of instructor would be selfish
and ego driven. Given her infamous
flexibility and spine probably few could
match her expectations anyway. My
expectation was to learn how to gain greater
height in Salabhasana. That was my
expectation because of all that had been
written about her practice, her coaching
ability and her own self-administered
recovery of her spine after injury which she
translated into her ability to heal others with
Bikram yoga.
Mary Jarvis did not disappoint.
“Think butt up and toes up!” said Mary in
Salabhasana. In my mind, I heard the
former studio owner’s Jim Ambrogi’s
encouragement “Push with your arms! Kick
with your legs! Please come up, everybody
go up, more up!” I heard Jenifer Ruschell
encourage me to try Wall Walking which
terrified me! I thought “What the
heck…just let go!”
Up went my feet…beyond the usual 45
degree angle.
“It is a three point stand on the tops of the
shoulders and chin forward…the chest is
not on the floor!” exclaimed Mary.
After most had fallen out of the posture,
three or four sets of toes were still pointed
towards the ceiling while Mary continued to
exclaim “Toes up! Butt up!”
My feet went up in Salsabhasana because I
lost the expectation it would be hard and
something I could not do! I just “Let go!” I
found myself standing on my chin and
shoulders instead of pressing my arms down
and pointing my feet away from my chest. I
had “just let go!” and my chest was off the
floor!
Class drew to a conclusion with Spine
Twisting Posture as Mister M and I sat in
our individual pools of sweat on our mats
which our towels had managed to contain.
Mary Jarvis concluded Final Savasana with
an explanation of how her father’s departure
had led her to greater appreciation of the
yoga she has taught for more than 40 years
and the reason she continues to teach.
I entered the Bikram Alexandria studio
expecting to learn from Mary Jarvis’ the
secrets to healing the spine. What I learned
from Mary Jarvis was the secret for healing
the heart! She took us from Alpha to
Omega in just one class.
“Just let go!” she whispered as the lights
dimmed for Final Savasana.
Copyright Patricia Gavin 2015