i’ve lately been pondering my voice and presence in a yoga class. the type of yoga i learned originally, sri swami satchidananda’s integral yoga, teaches a particular language, sequencing, and orientation for students in the class. the vinyasa style of yoga, derived from modern-day ashtanga yoga, also arranges the class (ashtanga more than vinyasa, in this case) in a particular way.
to be sure, most forms of hatha yoga have a style of teaching rooted in similar language (inhale/exhale), sequencing (standing poses before inverted poses), and orientation to what you are actually doing in the room (pray to the divine, or just notice your muscles). today what’s interesting to me is whether or how that approach gets stale if you don’t challenge yourself to renew your approach occasionally.
i wonder what other teachers and students think about the kinds of words they want to say or hear. it’s easy to be rote; you can say the same thing about the same pose every time. on the other hand, the ways of describing the body in space and time are endless — and experimenting too much maddens.
teachers: do you find yourself wanting to repeat yourself sometimes, or are you always thinking of new ways to describe the class experience? students: do you want to hear the same thing week to week, perhaps in order to learn the poses better, or do you like the language fresh and changing each time you come to class?
filed under: the boundless perspective, teacher training, more on yoga, the yoga of words, for beginners
This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 4:51 pm and is filed under the boundless perspective, teacher training, more on yoga, the yoga of words, for beginners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
February 16th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
sometimes i can only focus on one part of a pose at a time — so it might be weeks before i get to the second instruction given by a teacher, even though s/he has been saying the *same thing* for weeks. but, at the same time, a teacher who finds new words or metaphors to use is also refreshing and keeps class entertaining — and those instructions might be the ones that finally get me unstuck in a pose. so i guess i vote for both. tastes great, less filling.