It's really hard to describe what yoga actually is to someone who doesn't know anything about it. When my sister visited last weekend we were talking about how to stop your mind from getting caught up in anxious thoughts. She was saying that in her job as a gardener she has a lot of time to think, maybe even 'over think'. I was trying to explain that yoga is almost the opposite of this in that you try and allow your mind to be still.
Then I read Kino MacGregors post. "Yoga is a state of being, not a performance. Asana is a tool to help practitioners enter the subtle body. Only you can experience yoga from the inside out. If you haven't found that state of yoga yet, keep practicing and keep looking within."
These 2 things have inspired my teaching this week as we have had less chat and instruction and more opportunity to turn in. There's been a bit of verbal teaching but then self practice. This allows people to be more present. Be more mindful. To truly link body to breath. Turning inwards like a moving meditation. Ceasing the fluctuations of the mind. (Sutra 1.2 yogas-citta-vrtti-nirodhah).
It's been great to explore this in our yogaeverydamnday online sessions. We practice similar sequences and this week's focus has enabled more quiet self practice time. It's actually really powerful knowing we're doing this simultaneously together. (Even those on catch up - who I really appreciate sending messages through)!
In all my face to face classes too this week it's been so great to really see people turning their attention inwards. Practicing real yoga, not just asana.
Kino describes this of their Mysore style classes at the Miami Yoga Garage as their church.
Sometimes we have to turn all the other sounds off to really tune in to our own meditation FM.
Namaste
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