The Right Way

I raised this topic in classes that
I taught this past week and it opened a beautiful door of discussion. Many
students of yoga want to think that what they’re doing is the right way to do
it, mainly to ensure that they get the benefits of the pose and don’t injure
themselves. At least, that’s what I project that they want and from a teachers
viewpoint, my first objective is to keep things absolutely as safe as possible.
I hold the intention that our yoga is a lifelong practice and to keep getting
ourselves onto the mat, we need to know how to manage the obstacles that might
keep us off our mats.

Some of those hurdles could be injury or recovery
from illness. I have come across people who have an injury and completely step
away from their practice rather than into it. This might be due to the idea
that they’ve only practiced one way and they can no longer. To stay with the
practice they have to alter their approach and that often means returning to
a beginners mind. How can I manage my injury yet still stay connected
to my practice? Am I able to let go of the more challenging class for a gentle
or restorative practice?

Thinking about the right way to
practice any pose, I came to my thought for the week. That is, that the right
way to do a pose is the way that your body allows you to do the pose. This
translates to each practitioner being responsible for what’s happening in their
physical selves, even if it means doing it differently to how the instructor has
presented it. Not every body can fit into every pose and if we impose an ideal
of what it should look like, then we skip over the part about it being
our practice.

Granted, different lineages teach poses
differently. What I love exploring is how can we honor these traditions and
honor what our bodies are telling us simultaneously? Sometimes they both agree
and at others, the body might be giving us different signals.

Here are
the basic guidelines I like to offer my students in raising their awareness as
to what the right pose is for them:

1. If you feel pain, it’s
not right.
2. Avoid forcing your body to do any posture. With timely
progressions and warm up, your body will naturally move into a pose more deeply
when it’s ready.
3. If you feel discomfort, that’s OK as long as it’s not
pain. Yoga often puts us into uncomfortable and unfamiliar positions. Find
your breath and explore. If it moves into being painful, it’s time to back
off.
4. Know that your pose is going to look different to everyone else and
that’s the beauty of it.