After months of deliberation, I have finally decided to speak out against extremism in the yoga world.
If you are reading this, then my message has successfully made it to the internet. Tonight, I will be going underground and living out of an unmarked Volkswagen bus in the Pacific Northwest.
I hope my message will empower some of you to speak out against the obsessive and excessive forms of yoga that threaten to destroy our unity and peace.
The Terrible Toos
Yoga extremists see the world as black and white, or sometimes just black or white. This can show up as:
- too much yoga
- too little reliance on your own intuition
- too much heat during class
- too much vigorous activity
- too little rest when needed
- too much reliance on the teacher
- too little work on focusing the mind
- too much pretension
If It Ain’t Broke, Then Don’t Fixate
Habits can be good or bad; but replacing one obsession with a “healthy” one does little to improve your life. Beware of the following:
- Spending so much time doing or talking about yoga that your relationships are negatively affected (I’m talking about relationships with real people, not your yoga mat)
- Dressing like and/or talking like a yoga person just so you can fit the yoga ideal
- Pushing yourself beyond your body’s limits in order to accomplish a yoga pose that someone next to you can do
- Believing that your hamstrings are the root of all evil
Ignorance Is Bliss, But It’s Also Pain
Your mind is one of the most useful props in yoga. To fight off your own extreme tendencies, remember the following:
- You are in charge of your body. The teacher won’t tell you when your knee hurts, that’s your responsibility.
- The teacher is a guide, not your parent or your spouse. Listen to their advice, but use your own common sense and intuition.
- There is no “perfect” form of yoga. It’s like buying a car, you have to find one that fits your current needs.
- You may never do a headstand, crazy pretzel pose, or stop your heart using your diaphragm. That’s okay.
- There is more to yoga than the poses. If you still feel agitated even after doing yoga, it’s time to rethink your plan.
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Photo: Printscapes.com
Photo: Printscapes.com
Nice reminders. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the “striving student” role, forgetting that yoga is nothing like mathz or even ballet class. We’re each there to improve and enrich our own inner life individually, from there to add our rising consciousness to the collective, and though this is ultimately a kind of practice for the whole, our immediate awareness must stay with our own internal dialogue, the communication between our physical bodies and our awareness of all things inside and out. It’s good to be reminded that I don’t need to do everything the teacher does — especially if it starts to hurt when I’m struggling, only halfway there. If I ask the question, the answer is obvious, but sometimes I need to be reminded that the question is there to ask. 🙂
Well said, Gillian, especially about needing to be reminded that the question is there to ask. I’ll remind my students that yoga is not math class. 😉