Hi,
It's February and LOVE is in the air, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you about my yoga journey, and why it is that I love yoga.
The Beginning
I found Iyengar yoga, like most of us, quite by chance because it happened to be the closest yoga class to me that fitted in with a time that I could make. My kids were still very little, but my youngest had started nursery and I was desperate to reclaim my body, and I'll be honest that getting fitter and losing weight were definitely motivators.
From the very first lesson, it made sense to me. I found it challenging and interesting in equal measure. I continued attending once a week for a couple of years and was then invited to attend an Intermediate class by my then teacher. It was MUCH harder. This transition from one to two classes a week turned something that was on the periphery of my life into something that moved much more to the centre.
The Choice to Become a Teacher
It was my teacher who suggested I become a yoga teacher. It wasn't something I had thought a possibility, but once she'd planted the seed, it began to slowly take root. But before even thinking about applying for the teacher training course I knew I had to establish a home practice. As you all know, a home practice is very different from the yoga you do in a class. Although you work hard in a yoga class, it is a passive experience because the motivation and direction are external.
Once you decide to start a home practice every decision is down to you. The motivator for me at the start was to improve my headstand. It took me many years of going to yoga to be ready for headstand, and once I started doing it in class I found I wanted to go home and get better at it. You can't just practice headstand on its own [see the sequencing rules from last month's blog] so I had to come up with a sequence that supported my goal to balance in headstand away from the wall.
The Teacher Training
At the time, the teacher training course was two years minimum and you had to have practiced Iyengar yoga regularly for three years. This gave you a good foundation for the course, but nothing could have prepared me for how hard it was. My teacher trainer was (and is) fiercely passionate about Iyengar yoga and she took no prisoners. My yoga improved very quickly, and I learnt a lot from her rigorous style. Over the course of the two years, we were broken down and rebuilt as yoga teachers.
There was a steep learning curve in terms of knowledge; I learnt about the philosophy of yoga, how to plan a lesson, the basic anatomy of the body and how to help people through different variations.
But there was also a steep experiential learning curve; I saw bodies differently, I saw myself differently. I learnt to really look, not just parrot out instructions. I learnt to teach from the heart.
Being a Yoga Teacher
I was told when I was doing my teacher training that it was only once I'd passed my assessment (that's another story) and started teaching that the real learning would start. And they were right.
Standing in front of a class of students is both scary and exciting at the beginning. The lesson seems to stretch ahead like an eternity. But time passes and the students are your best teacher. Through them (through YOU) you learn about real yoga.
What I Love about Iyengar Yoga
I am an Iyengar yoga student and I love being part of this global family, but no one way is perfect. Iyengar yoga has its flaws, its politics, and its detractors. But there is a wisdom and depth of understanding that emanated from Iyengar himself that makes Iyengar yoga very special to me. It's important never to think that because we practice one way we are superior.
In his book Light on Life, Iyengar says:
"If we ever find ourselves apart from or superior to others, purer or more elevated by yoga, we can be sure that we are [] drifting back into a state of ignorance."
Once you start practicing Iyengar yoga you never stop learning. You are always a student.
My Yoga Practice
The real yoga that I do is my yoga practice. The will to get onto my mat. The intelligence to come up with a sequence that will move me on from yesterday, or that will be right for my mind and body, and the persistence to keep doing that every day in order to move the yoga from the body to the mind.
Sometimes I am distracted [remember those nine obstacles to yoga...I've come up against most of them, plus a couple more] by family life. Sometimes I am purely lazy and opt for a cup of tea in bed - and that's OK too! But most days a week I fit my practice in early in the morning before my children wake up to go school so that I can start the day knowing that I am set up ready to go.
My yoga equipment is stacked neatly in the corner of the bedroom, and the fitted cupboards in our bedroom work well for a supporting wall. I find that sticking to one time and place means that some of the obstacles to yoga are removed.
What I Love About it
If you ask most yoga teachers what they love about yoga they'll look at you blankly. It's too hard to answer. Yoga isn't something outside of themselves that can be objectively described. The brilliant Wendy McGuire, my teacher and the teacher of many teachers, says:
Students and friends often ask me how yoga has changed my life. It is impossible for me to answer that question – yoga is part of my life”.
And that's it really. Yoga is me. I am yoga.