Yoga started it’s climb towards popularity, here in the west, in the early to mid 90’s. Since then, the practice of yoga has been pared back to nothing more than a workout. In order to sell yoga to the western clientele, we instructors added heat to the room, an ab workout to the sequence and even goats to climb on your back: all to get people in the doors. As this stuff was added, we were removing the philosophy, the history and I’ve even seen talk online of instructors removing the breath work (pranayama). All of this adding and subtracting has left us with a yoga class that is offering us no more than an aerobics class. Don’t get me wrong, I think a good heart pumping workout is amazing! I just wish we weren’t looking for it while we are on our yoga mats!
I have taught yoga since 2008, so I know I have played my part in this idea that yoga is a workout!! Even though this is what I have taught, my personal practice has always been the opposite. Unless I was planning out a class, my practice is very soft and gentle. My time on the mat looks nothing like the classes I teach. Why did I do that? Honestly, I thought that if I taught how I practiced, my classes would empty! So I taught workout classes!
What really makes me sad, is I have done you a real disservice by teaching you this westernised version of yoga! I am seeing and hearing people so overwhelmed with everything that is happening in the world today. Unfortunately, because I taught yoga as a workout, I am seeing people turn away from their practice rather than towards it!
“True yoga is not about the shape of your body, but the shape of your life. Yoga is not to be performed; yoga is to be lived. Yoga doesn’t care about what you have been; yoga cares about the person you are becoming. Yoga is designed for a vast and profound purpose, and for it to be truly called yoga, its essence must be embodied.”
Most yoga teachers have studied the eight limbs of yoga. They are:
Yama (attitudes toward our environment)
Niyama (attitudes toward ourselves)
Asana (physical postures)
Pranayama (restraint or expansion of the breath)
Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses)
Dharana (concentration)
Dhyana (meditation)
Samadhi (complete integration)
If we look at these eight limbs- asana is 12% of a yoga practice. But most classes we can find, especially here is Central Alberta, are pretty close to 100% asana. We can go to “yoga” classes for years, maybe we can even become so flexible that we can put our foot behind our heads and not once hear the word Pratyahara. I know this, because I have taught for years and mentioned the practice of Pratyahara only a hand full of times.
In order to help us navigate these times, we really need all eight of these limbs. I have been trying to improve my teaching to bring in these different aspects. I want to help people feeling overwhelmed. I want them to know that Yoga can help with that!!
Don’t get me wrong, the physical practice of yoga is amazing! Asana practice offers us the chance to build strength and flexibility, as well as better mobility and balance. But if you are are living with a great amount of stress or if you are depressed, it is the pranayama that we do with that movement that will have the most impact.
So the morale of this Musing, if you are carrying a heavy load-whether this is emotionally, physically or even spiritually; please know that yoga may just have the tools you need to lighten it. I highly recommend talking to your favourite yoga instructor. I know that asking for help is not easy, but I also know that in asking you will open yourself up to receiving what you need!
Until next time,
Sandra