We Didn’t Mean to Scare You, Part 2: We Really Want to Inspire You!

by Baxter

Another View from 1/2 Mile Marker by Brad Gibson

Nina asked me to share my own thoughts on her post from last week, We Didn't Mean to Scare You, and I wanted to begin by saying how much I appreciated her common sense response to this writer’s dilemma. As many of you know by now, our purpose here at YFHA is to provide you with information and tools to assist you in practicing and teaching yoga as you age in healthy and beneficial ways.

Now I'd like to address one particular issue that our questioner raised:

"My own thought about practice is, if I'm not feeling something, why bother? I know most of my students feel the same way."

Indeed, much of what we experience internally as we practice yoga is some sort of increase in sensation, whether it is a feeling of stretch or compression in muscles or near joints, or strong muscle contraction when we are using a muscle group to keep us in our pose. On the level of physical-mental connection, we get this feedback from the body and we know that something is happening. The vast majority of the time, if taught or practiced skillfully, this is probably a beneficial thing that leads to some very positive, “delicious” changes, as our writer points out.

One of the skills that we develop as we practice more consistently is the discrimination to know when the level of feeling is better or worse for us. It is true in yoga and in everyday life. We learn at a young age how hot is too hot, and such.  If we acknowledge this experimental way that we all learn, then even when we go a bit too far in practice and have a brief “injury” or setback, it really shouldn’t be discouraging, because in some way this happens for us to find our limits and edges and provides us with wisdom for our future practice. We actually have learned something valuable about the yoga practice and ourselves. And, just to play devil’s advocate, don’t forget styles of yoga asana and meditation where there is not much going on, very little feedback or “feeling” happening, yet much benefit for the your entire being. This could be the case for restorative yoga or Yoga Nidra. These practices are equally an experience of yoga and the ultimate aim of yoga as a physically demanding style of practice.  

And as a teacher of yoga concerned about the general safety of the classes you teach, periodically re-assess the population you are teaching to, their average age and the fitness level of your students.  As your community ages, you may decide to learn new styles of practice and teaching that will better serve the needs of your student base that might be considered “gentle,” “restorative” or even “therapeutic.”  Nothing wrong with that, and you will become a more skilled teacher, able to work with many different kinds of students.  Our education as teachers should really never stop. And instead of letting the expanding knowledge about yoga scare us, let’s get inspired to learn and integrate this new information into our work in such a way to build our confidence, both as practitioners of the art and teachers of the path.