Cheers! Welcome to Yogic
Matters…part two. My blog has been on sabbatical so that I could focus all my
energies on things that needed extra focus-- teaching, learning,
dancing, watching my boyfriend get crazy with Grand Theft Auto 5, etc. But now
I’m back and promising to make more of an effort to blog about my yogic
findings. My first matter (let's call it my comeback matter) is my 32
hour project for my 500 hour teaching certification. I decided that since the yamas and
niyamas have become such a vital part of my practice, and my life, for the past
couple of years, I wanted to step up my teaching game by integrating the yogic
behaviors (yamas) and attitudes (niyamas) into my classes. http://www.yogaoutlet.com/guides/the-yamas-niyamas-in-yoga
I approached this project as an experiment. I
decided to work with four classes, all of which were at a gym. Since this
is strictly gym yoga, I had been grappling back and forth for a long while
debating whether gym yoga classes are targeted to be more rigorous and “work
out like” vs an integrated journey of self contemplation for which yoga was
originally designed. It seemed as though the fuller classes were full of strong, young, viral people who could not get enough chatarunga and hand balances. Those parts of a yoga practice, although very beneficial in their own way, is such a small part of what the tradition of yoga has to offer. Studies are showing that yoga lowers cortisol levels, helps to lower blood pressure, and encourages self acceptance. So why in the gym yoga classes were people begging for sweat? Was the general goal of a gym yoga class purely
physical or was I being too prescriptive in my head? I sought to find the answers by changing up the routine and bring ancient yogic wisdom to my classes. (For the record, the inspiration for this project was based on the fact that it was in a setting designated towards working out/physical
exertion. It was NOT based on personal character of my students or any mentioned preference).
I decided that on Mon/Tues, I would talk about the Y/N
(yamas/niyamas) in a physical sense, emphasizing how the Y/N applied to the
students' asana practice. Wed/Thursday I tried
to relate the Y/N to real life situations, emphasizing how the principle could
be applied to the students' everyday actions. I would spend about 5 minutes at the beginning of class to talk about the Y/N. Ultimately, what I wanted to
convey to my students was that yoga is much deeper than just the asana
practice, and that they could be practicing yoga all the time if they
integrated the yamas and niyamas into their lives regularly.
Here is some of the feedback that I received:
1) Some students volunteered to fill out surveys explaining
their yoga experience before the experiment and after. On the
before surveys every student said they had not heard of the Y/N, but 100%
of surveyors said that they believed that yoga is something you could use in
your everyday life. I concluded from this that yoga, even on its most
superficial level, is unanimously agreed upon to be a pretty wonderful
practice…something they would practice everyday if they knew more of the
tradition.
2) Some students did approach me to talk about how they felt
about the experiment. Some liked the deeper explanation of the ethical
observances in yoga. What I found interesting, however, was how of those
people who told me they liked it most were retired school teachers or
principles. So basically people who spent their career educating and sharing knowledge. On the other hand, some
students said they didn’t like me talking about the Y/N. I noticed with these people they came only
once in a while and told me that they had very busy lives. One woman in particular
said she felt that I was stealing her time by taking 5 minutes to talk instead
of starting the yoga practice. I told her I understood how precious time was since she was
very busy, and I appoligized if she thought I was stealing her time but I couldn’t help to notice she appropriately understood and applied the concept of asteya
(non-stealing) to a real life situation--even if I was the accused thief. Conclusion: people that didn't like it were busy, multi-taskers. Ultimately, I decided to change my approach of
communicating the Y/N, but I wasn’t going to kick it entirely because it was
obviously cultivating some brain stimulation IE contemplation IE planting the seeds of self awarenes.
From then on I started the asana right away and weaved in the Y/N throughout the
hatha yoga practice.
3) Class sizes did get a little smaller. But this was also
during summertime, so I can’t determine if they got smaller due to people not
wanting to hear about the Y/N, or if they were at the beach all day. I’d like
to think the latter.
Ultimately I learned a lot from this experiment. I figure it was about a 50/50 split as to whether students just wanted the physical stuff or if they wanted the deeper wisdom stuff. The lesson I took from this personally was that I wanted to share the deeper stuff, whether it was being processed or not. Yoga is a long tradition, and I really don't want to contribute to its simplification just because its now popular in a culture that extracts "good" or "bad" qualitifacations based on physical traits. I learned how to refine what I wanted to communicate to my classes so that they can get to an illuminated place in their bodies, mind, and spirit. Conclusively, I stand
firm in my incorporation of the Y/N to my classes, but I also agree that I should
not be giving speeches in a hatha yoga class unless they are warranted.
I think I will continue to slip in words of yogic wisdom, but during the
time they hold the poses and have nowhere to go but to receive their own satya
(truth).
In the end, it comes back to your intention. If you want the
practice to be completely physical, I trust that you’ll find a way to tune me
out. Which is fine, do your thing. But if you’re interested in going a little
deeper into the wisdom of yoga...maybe tip toeing into the pool of true
transformation, I will continue to offer a path to that direction as well.
Thanks for checking it! Find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/roxy.yogs
and lets be friends! Yay! Peace and blessings to all.
Namaste.
roxy
