21/12/2024
WHAT DOES THE WORD "YOGA" MEAN?
The word comes from Sanskrit and means "to yoke", "to join", "to unite" in the sense of directing and concentrating one's attention. Learning yoga helps the individual to harmonise the mind, the body, the breathing and the emotions.
BENEFITS OF IYENGAR YOGA
As in any discipline - including learning a language or musical instrument or any sports activity - improvement depends on regular practice and attendance at classes. Classes are graded so that participants can advance at the speed appropriate for each individual. By the end of a seven weeks beginners course one would have a basic grasp of a number of yoga postures and have learned the beginnings of how to deeply relax the body.
As one continues in yoga, one is likely to experience improvement in one's posture, stamina, breathing, increase in poise, increased mental calmness and lightness in the body. One's body with time becomes increasingly toned, strong and elastic but not muscle bound. Long term practice leads to tremendous physical and psychological health benefits.
ARE THERE ANY RESTRICTIONS ON WHO MAY JOIN CLASSES?
Iyengar Yoga is an activity that is suitable at any age. However those with VERY serious medical conditions are better off not attending normal classes and instead to attend smaller classes with specialist teachers who can set up a special program for each student. (I can advise you if you fit in this category). Yoga is ideal for pregnancy for all three trimesters. As a special programme is followed by those who are pregnant, requiring a lot of attention from the teacher, those who are new to yoga are advised to attend special yoga for pregnancy classes. Those who are more experienced (in level 3 of my classes) can continue in the class. It is only common sense that if you have had major surgery you need to wait a period of time until full recovery before joining classes. If you are under 16 you need to attend with a parent or guardian, or go to specialised classes designed for teenagers and children
ADVICE FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ATTEND THEIR FIRST CLASS
Wear loose clothes eg shorts or leggings or track suit. Feet need to be bare to practice yoga so leggings need to end at ankles. You are strongly advised not to have a big meal before the class. If you are desperately hungry, then a banana! You also will need a yoga mat , a blanket and two foam pads for the beginners. All equipment can be purchased at cost (wholesale) price from the teacher or borrowed from a friend.
OBSTACLES AND CHALLENGES IN THE PATH OF YOGA
Taking up yoga makes one face one’s long term habits of mind, and this can be too challenging for some. For example, we live in a very competitive society, we are always comparing ourselves to other people. If we go to the gym, we compare how many times we can lift the weights to the others in the room. Yoga is non competitive and students are urged not to compare themselves to others in the class but this can be too difficult for some.
In the yoga class, somebody who is top in his or her profession, or indeed in the gym, may find that he or she considers him or herself at the bottom in the yoga class. A good sportsman might find that he is too muscle bound or stiff to do things as well as he thinks somebody else is doing them. A therapist who maybe teaches clients relaxation skills may find that he/she is too anxious to even close his/her eyes! If one comes to the class with low back pain, the teacher may insist that one does things differently to others in the class, and many people don’t like being given special attention .
Also people may have attitudes to themselves and others that are unhelpful. For example, I must do X, Y and Z at work in a certain amount of time, whatever the effect on myself. This attitude arrives in the yoga class – I must manage to do something that somebody else is doing, even if I hurt myself in the process. This attitude will not lead to progress in yoga.
It is very difficult for many people to accept that they have physical limitations (even if these may be only temporary). For example an individual may come to a class with a history of knee surgery many years earlier. That person may stopped their physiotherapy early, having regained what he/she believed was acceptable functioning of the damaged knee, but not having actually regained the previous range of movement of that knee. Now in the yoga class that person can only sit in certain positions on the floor if given the aid of many more foam pads than the rest of the class. But often that individual cannot face the fact that what was thought to be a normal knee is not. Rather than accept that there is a problem, and work with the teacher to solve it, some people will just avoid being in a situation where they have to see it.
The same will apply to people with stiff shoulders. If one never raises one’s arms above one’s head (as one has to do in a yoga class), one will never know that one is unable to do so.
Some people have innate flexibility of their limbs due to constitutional looseness of connective tissue. They can make the shapes of yoga postures easily but do not have the stamina to maintain them as their muscles are weak. These people have to face the fact that they are not as strong as they imagined themselves to be. At the other extreme some people are so strong that their flexibility of movement is hindered by the size of their muscles. These people can get very despondent at their stiffness in a yoga class.
One can run away from facing an obstacle (and give up yoga) or one can accept the obstacle as an opportunity to be surmounted, and in the process of surmounting it make mental and physical progress. With continuing practice, the stiff become flexible , the flexible become strong, and those who needed extra aids at the beginning lose the need for them.
