Yesterday evening I went to a yoga class that I tend to go to very regularly and then not at all. It’s usually 60 minutes of Hatha yoga, ending with a short 10 – 15 minute meditation. When I first started going, I used to dread the meditation and more recently, I have noticed, I am starting to enjoy it. Now I wonder if perhaps I go for the meditation, not in spite of it.
The teacher, Mark Hill, started the class on this particular evening by interpreting the word ‘vinyasa‘ – a sanskrit word, and as such, may be explained or translated in a multitude of ways, depending on the translator. Mark chose ‘to place with awareness‘, which I have never heard before. To me (at this time), ‘vinyasa flow‘ translated as a dynamic yoga class that would probably see you break into at least a light sweat. On an imagined scale of physical effort, it fit somewhere in between hatha and ashtanga yoga, and more towards the ashtanga end.
Mark then went on to say something that was completely illuminating to me. In all the years of practising yoga, I have never heard anyone say anything quite so helpful (apart from Ella the 8 year-old yogi perhaps).
He said that his suggestions throughout the class, were exactly that – purely suggestions for the body to take or leave, not instructions or directions. His suggestions were to help us to be in awareness, in our bodies, in the present moment.
The suggestion to ground a foot, outwardly rotate a thigh or stretch the side body was not just about correcting a posture and certainly not about getting the students to ‘do it right’ – as I have often felt. It was about helping us to bring awareness to that particular body part and thereby help us to be in the present moment, to be in the class, to be in our bodies, to be in that foot, thigh or side and not in our heads. Not in “Where did she get those yoga leggings from?”, “She looks like she does a lot more yoga than me”, “What am I going to have for supper?”, “Shall I text him back now or wait a bit?” etc.
Back to the yoga.
Listening to suggestions (not instructions or directions) with this perspective in mind changes everything. It removes a critical perspective of oneself and changes it to a positive and mindful intention to bring oneself into the present moment. The yoga class is suddenly an enabler to be in the present moment, not a platform for self-criticism, which I am sure is still how so many people feel.
That comment was so simple, yet so illuminating. Because that’s what yoga is really all about. It’s not a sport to bring a healthy sweat, although it can bring that about. It’s not something you do to compare yourself to others, although sometimes that happens too. It’s actually just a means to help us to be in the present moment a little bit more.
