I was speaking recently with some yoga colleagues and interestingly, we had all shared a similar experience:
- the experience of ‘discovering’ something in our practice and then at some point being in a class where the teacher taught ‘our’ discovery,
OR
- of realizing that we had actually been taught that so-called discovery a hundred times before, but just didn’t ‘hear’ it!
I found it quite amusing that this was such a common experience. When I reflected on why, the following 2 thoughts came to mind…
One: So much is conveyed in a class that I think (at least for me) my body and mind can only absorb so much. This is why an instruction I’ve been hearing for 5 years can all of a sudden click and be meaningful in an entirely new way. For whatever reason, at that particular moment in time, I am ready in mind and body to receive (or reinterpret) the instruction. To me, this is incredibly exciting (!) because it means the learning never stops.
Two: In my opinion, there is no such thing as a yoga expert. BKS Iyengar teaches to approach the mat each day ‘as a beginner’. I understand this to mean that no matter how much progress I’ve made, knowledge I’ve gained, classes I’ve taught, there is always the potential to learn more, to delve deeper. As the asanas penetrate, I change. And as a result of that change, I’m forever a beginner learning to understand my state of being (or as I referred to it in my last post, that ‘new normal’). While not easily embraced, I believe this process to be humility at its best.
In today’s day and age there are so-called experts for just about everything. Weeding out the imposters from those actually in the know can be much more difficult than it should be. In the yoga world, it’s no different. A brief search for yoga teachers in my home city revealed thousands of ‘expert’, ‘world-renowned’, ‘best in the city’ yoga teachers. How can this possibly be true?! This made me question my own online presence and whether I was being genuine in my presentation of myself.
When I began writing for yogabound.ca, I knew I’d be putting myself ‘out there’ in a way that is quite different than standing in front of a class and teaching, and I made the conscious decision to be comfortable with that. What I didn’t realize though is that the act of musing about yoga would itself perpetuate an air of credibility. I’d like to take this opportunity to state very clearly that all I know comes from the great teachers in my life. My teachers and my practice. And it’s my teachers that have ultimately taught me how to learn from my practice.
So why do I blog about yoga?
Despite not being a yoga expert, I blog. Should I? I don’t know, but upon reflection I think my intentions can be summed up in 4 main points:
One: I blog to share my passion for Iyengar Yoga with others and hopefully ignite a spark that might lead others to their own mat.
Two: I blog to reflect and process some of what happens on my mat. Like with a diary or a journal, preparing the writings for this blog have been therapeutic in a similar way.
Three: I blog to share the inevitable ups and downs that occur with a dedicated practice. I believe that yoga can be a lonely pursuit. I have the good fortune of studying in a large yoga centre with a strong community of teachers and students. This community has been very welcoming and supportive. Knowing that not everyone out there has access to this kind of support also motivates my blogging efforts.
and Four: For some reason, making my musings public makes me feel like I’m giving thanks for all the gifts I’ve received through yoga.
Truthfully though, I’m kind of fascinated by the fact that I like reading and writing about yoga at all. I believe firmly that what yoga has to offer cannot ultimately be learned from the written word, it must come from that continued relationship between a practitioner and the mat. That said, I do think reading and writing can provide both comfort and inspiration. What do you think? Why do you read about yoga? Whether it’s from this blog or others, what is it that you ‘get’ from reading about other people’s yoga experiences, their insights, or practices? Do you think there is such a thing as a yoga expert?
P.S. If you asked me whether BKS Iyengar is a yoga expert, I would undoubtedly say YES!!!!! But people like him are one in a million, not a dime a dozen as the online landscape would suggest :).
Great post! I do read a lot about yoga, but the main point for me (particularly regarding blogs) is to share and comment. Obviously what yoga is all about is a very personal matter and can only be experienced in a very individual way. But I still find it comforting that there are a lot of people out there struggling with the same things, asking the same questions, suffering from the same insecurities.
Not all of us are fortunate enough to have a teacher we can relate to or to be able to afford regular yoga classes. For all the yogis who practise at home, on their mat in a corner of the living room, I think it’s great that they can at least virtually connect to like-minded people 🙂
Andrea
thx Andrea! Every once in a while writing for this blog can feel overly self indulgent, so it’s nice to be reminded that there’s comfort for others sharing in similar experiences 🙂
Stephanie, thanks for initiating a gracious, intelligent, sober yet open hearted topic, which we take too much for granted and keep too circumscribed among those of like background and training. The master you invoke (BKSI) reminds us in his own practice (of all the limbs of classical yoga) to take nothing and no one for granted. He provides a good example, even going so far, i think, to remind us our practice and our ultimate guru must be discovered and followed from within.
“…to remind us our practice and our ultimate guru must be discovered and followed from within.” — thank-you for this, Judi! Your comment leaves me with much to contemplate.
Yet another wonderful post! I think everyone is an expert on their own personal experiences. It is something no one can take away from one and it is also something that can be worth sharing. In that sense you are an expert! Don’t you think so? So I guess it’s the framing or definition of the word expert itself that’s important.
Why do I read about yoga? Reading has a great potential to expand my experience I have on the mat. It gives me another option of perspective I can only benefit from. Merging my practice with readings, personal reflections, my own notes, is a wonderful way of enriching it.
I’m aware when reading blogs that they’re mostly about personal experiences, at least that’s what I like the most when following them. It’s a persons intimate story about diving into yoga, a journey I’ve also taken on and although we all kind of walk together yet everyone walks their own path creating their own little yoga-universe 😉
I agree, my experiences are *my* experiences and no one can be more of an expert on that than me. I quite like the point that Judi (above) mentions about finding the inner guru that we each have. I guess the challenge is not letting what we ‘think’ we know interfere with real knowledge filtering in. How to remain open and receptive, yet actively engaged in a thoughtful way.
So true So true! I have also experienced some of the above but not all as I too am just a beginner after 5 years of practicing Iyengar yoga! While thanking him for his gift of yoga to the word, Guruji (in Delhi , 2009) responded, “I too am just a beginner!” Who then could be an expert?!
I know I’m a little late to the ball game, but I find your blog invaluable! There are so many other yoga bloggers with 200 hours experience just assuming they are experts and blogging about it. More Iyengar teachers like you need to blog no matter what level they are, because this teaching has so much more depth.
thx yogibattle, u r very kind. Your blog is excellent too! I’ve been enjoying it 🙂
I just came across your blog. Happy to read and find that there are others out there who experience the same. It’s quite astonishing when practising for years and all of a sudden, has a feeling oh this is what it is. why not I discover it before. And then after time passes, the feelings that what i think is right changes again. I also like what you wrote about home practice. When I do home practice, it takes me like 2-3 hours with not many asanas at all. Sometimes with even 5-6 asanas. I play around with different size of blocks and bricks and with no props and find out how it affects differently on my inner legs etc. I also take a video of myself cos I feel unequal but not certain whether which part is rolled in, which part is rolled out. Probably my sensitivity isn’t sharp enough. Thank you for sharing your experience.
..and thank-you for sharing yours. Best of luck to you with your practice 🙂