Asana Practise.
If you went to a so-called Yoga class and didn't know any better you would think that Asana practice is a strange kind of gymnastic class. People sweat and grind their way through a class and feel better at the end of it (usually).
Also you will find that most people won't talk to each other, there is a lot of competitive posturing, and sometimes but not always a deification of the Yoga teacher running the class.
Asana practice, in my opinion, seems to be about 'feelings'. It seems to be about learning to relate to ourselves in a physical way. Joint stiffness and muscular tightness become the object of our discomfort.
When I teach a class I often encourage people to keep their eyes closed and breathe.
In my opinion feelings, if you are not used to them, are hard to deal with. Musculature holds memory and sometimes past trauma can be re-ignited during a particular posture. We may not experience it as a remembered trauma, it may just feel really uncomfortable, or some thing we want to get away from.
Unless we know a little about what to expect we may continue to do Asana practice without realising what we are really doing.
What we are really doing is (I believe) finding a way to relate to ourselves in a physical/emotional way. We are learning to be okay with difficult feelings, we are learning to stay focused under the stress of the particular Asana we are relating to.
If a teacher or Yoga center has a vested interest in keeping you coming back to the class they may not be interested in informing you that 'you' can do this stuff on your own. Indeed it is my 'strong' opinion that 'real' practice doesn't start until you are 'doing' it on your own. Until you are able to relate to your self on your mat with no need of any encouragement or ego tickling from an outside agency, you are still outwardly in 'need'.
The practice of Yoga is taking you to a place where you have no need or reliance on anything outside of yourself. Look at the great Yogi's as an example. They were all solitary figures, they were all (as far as I'm aware) beyond the concerns of the 'silly' people that surrounded them.
Yoga has become a 'group experience' and maybe it has to be that first to give the ego some thing to do. But as you may or may not know 'group dynamics' can keep you pre-occupied for years until you realise that you don't really need approval or acceptance form anyone but yourself.
It seems to me that Yoga practice challenges the very thing we need to get started, the Ego. We love it, we hate it, we like this person then we don't. We go to this class and it's great until it's not and we go to someone else and they are great until they're not.
What conclusion can you come to?
That it is all necessary?
Or you can go straight to the heart of Yoga?
How long do you want to take?
How long have you got?
And .....
Where is it
You think you are going?
If you went to a so-called Yoga class and didn't know any better you would think that Asana practice is a strange kind of gymnastic class. People sweat and grind their way through a class and feel better at the end of it (usually).
Also you will find that most people won't talk to each other, there is a lot of competitive posturing, and sometimes but not always a deification of the Yoga teacher running the class.
Asana practice, in my opinion, seems to be about 'feelings'. It seems to be about learning to relate to ourselves in a physical way. Joint stiffness and muscular tightness become the object of our discomfort.
When I teach a class I often encourage people to keep their eyes closed and breathe.
In my opinion feelings, if you are not used to them, are hard to deal with. Musculature holds memory and sometimes past trauma can be re-ignited during a particular posture. We may not experience it as a remembered trauma, it may just feel really uncomfortable, or some thing we want to get away from.
Unless we know a little about what to expect we may continue to do Asana practice without realising what we are really doing.
What we are really doing is (I believe) finding a way to relate to ourselves in a physical/emotional way. We are learning to be okay with difficult feelings, we are learning to stay focused under the stress of the particular Asana we are relating to.
If a teacher or Yoga center has a vested interest in keeping you coming back to the class they may not be interested in informing you that 'you' can do this stuff on your own. Indeed it is my 'strong' opinion that 'real' practice doesn't start until you are 'doing' it on your own. Until you are able to relate to your self on your mat with no need of any encouragement or ego tickling from an outside agency, you are still outwardly in 'need'.
The practice of Yoga is taking you to a place where you have no need or reliance on anything outside of yourself. Look at the great Yogi's as an example. They were all solitary figures, they were all (as far as I'm aware) beyond the concerns of the 'silly' people that surrounded them.
Yoga has become a 'group experience' and maybe it has to be that first to give the ego some thing to do. But as you may or may not know 'group dynamics' can keep you pre-occupied for years until you realise that you don't really need approval or acceptance form anyone but yourself.
It seems to me that Yoga practice challenges the very thing we need to get started, the Ego. We love it, we hate it, we like this person then we don't. We go to this class and it's great until it's not and we go to someone else and they are great until they're not.
What conclusion can you come to?
That it is all necessary?
Or you can go straight to the heart of Yoga?
How long do you want to take?
How long have you got?
And .....
Where is it
You think you are going?
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