Sometimes life gets in the way of my search for bliss. By life I mean bills, money (or lack thereof), mood swings, the happiness of my other half. Sometimes life escalates into petty squabbles, disagreements and a general feeling of gloom…
But hang on. Stop a moment!
Spring is here, the sun is shining and when I open the kitchen window I can hear the birdsong and smell the sunshine…
And there it is. Bliss is right there – always. You just need to know where to look for it.
My yoga practice is changing, my attitudes, my thoughts, my desires and the purpose of yoga for me is all changing. Finding it hard to explain it in my own words I will borrow those of Gary Kraftsow:-
“Our tendancy today is to thing of physical fitness and health in terms of measurements and/or standards of performance. Bringing this mentality to asana practice, many have the impression that it is about performance and that we can measure our progress by our ability to perfect the forms of postures.
“The ancients, however, based their concept of physical fitness and health on an entirely different set of criteria; a feeling of lightness within the body, an ability to withstand change, and a stable body and focussed mind, ready to sit for pranayama practice and mediation.”
Yoga has gone mainstream in the west over the past few years. And this is a great thing. But so so much yoga concentrates purely on physical asana (posture) practice. To concentrate on this alone, or indeed to make this the majority of your practice is like discovering the onion but cooking only with the skin. So much of the flavour and goodness is left out.
Sitting and breathing, sitting and focussing, allowing oneself to be is equally important as posture practice. At the end of the day, apart from looking kind of cool, getting one’s leg behind one’s head is of little benefit in the grand scheme of things. Practicing consistency, and mental, physical and emotional awareness if far more important. What good after all physical strength without the strength of mind to resist the everchanging nature of life in this physical realm?
So will my new thoughts and feelings gained through my own yoga practice change the way I teach?
Well yes and no. I think that by trying to transcend the physical a little in my own practice I can teach more from the heart, with the stillness, calm and strength that my students need; that they come for whether they realise this consciously or not. I already only teach 50-55 minutes of asana practice during a 90 minute class so they are already experimenting with breath and and meditation by themselves. Some people love it. Some have come from yoga backgrounds where 85 minutes or so is dedicated to asana and have been surprised by my teaching style. Some have persevered and come to love it, some have hated it and never come back. *shrugs*. What can you do? Some people just aren’t ready; they may never be ready in this life. And that’s OK.
But as for the question will I be teaching a class that perhaps incorporates minimal posture practice, for example 20-25 minutes to warm up the body for deep breath practices? No probably not. Not in a regular class. That’s not what people want right now. It’s not what I’m here to teach right now.
But of course I could teach a two hour workshop on it one Saturday afternoon and take it from there…..
On Monday morning I taught my first mum and baby yoga class. Four mums and four babies (most of whom I taught right through their pregnancies). Babies, for the record are very very noisy. They weren’t crying exactly just yakking away to themselves, then realising there are other babies in the vicinity and yakking away to each other. Babies are strange, fabulous and enigmatic but did I mention they are very very noisy!
This isn’t for everyone admittedly. To teach mum and baby yoga you write a class plan…. and then you throw it away. You go with the flow, not everyone’s going to be doing the same thing at the same time, some mums need to stop for a feed, or a cuddle or just because they are absolutely knackered. There will always be one baby who decides to poo and/or yell in the middle of relaxation. You have to give the mums the run of the place, make them feel nurtured and at home. You have to be prepared to look after their little one so they can concentrate on their pelvic floors/breathwork/relaxation, you have to ensure they just keep breathing no matter what and you really have to think on your feet!
That said it was amazing. Truly amazing. It taught me so much about myself and how, when I need to, my ability to stay completely calm no matter what is going on and to just take the chaos as read and carry on regardless. I amazed myself by just how chilled I can be. I still have to work on crossing that bridge from yoga into my daily life and deal with all situations as though it were a mum and baby yoga class!
Now the big question here is why does someone who doesn’t want children of her own specialising in pre and post natal yoga? Well there are several answers to that really. I live in a family friendly area, so in some ways doing the pregnancy and baby training was a business decision. Secondly, I think that sometimes it’s nice for mums-to-be and new mums to be in an environment that isn’t centred entirely on baby. Having no children of my own I’m focussing much more on the mums and their health and wellbeing. I make a point of asking them how they are before I ask how baby is. I think it is a refreshing change for them. There is only impartial advice, there is no competition, there is just yoga. And thirdly… well thirdly just because a woman has made a decision not to have children does not mean there is no maternal instinct. I do not want my own children for a miriad of complicated reasons, but the mother in me can use a skill I am trained in and am good at to nurture, help and heal other women who have chosen to be mothers and their little ones. And you know, that’s enough.
