If you go to yoga classes, you’re most likely doing someone else’s yoga. Most people who practice yoga go to a studio or fitness center otherwise they may not practice at all. Fair enough, it most definitely takes desire and discipline to learn and do a daily Yoga practice for yourself, but in my view it’s the whole point of Yoga in the first place. A personal practice. A deep intimate relationship with the only things that we truly own: our heart, body, mind, emotions and spirit. Cultivating inquiry and exploration into our own reality as it is, is the underlying premise of all Yoga, period. By doing so, we quickly realize that we humans are in fact the same, and when we embrace cooperation over competition, everyone wins.
When I meet with a client, one to one, we co-create. I help them develop and do the right Yoga for them based on: their unique body type, age, overall health condition and cultural background or belief system. These are the old ways handed down from teacher to student in a genuinely caring relationship. The benefit of this is a very useful way to integrate a real Yoga practice right into your life.
In this relationship, there is education, action and accountability. I help them stay accountable for doing their own practice over the course of time. We usually meet once or twice per week, which reinforces their daily practice. Soon enough, their own Yoga practice becomes embodied. In this way, we adapt the Yoga to the individual rather than the individual to the yoga. This is traditionally how Yoga was taught for good reason. When the time is right, the student becomes their own teacher and won’t need me anymore, because they will have everything they need to embrace their own body, breath and relationship.
When you empower yourself by doing your own daily Yoga practice as a way to love and care for your entire being, physically, mentally and emotionally, there’s literally a shift in your vibrational energy field. People who know you, will notice this shift, but they may not be able to put their finger on why. Your own personal Yoga practice will affect every other relationship you have with everyone and everything. Doing your Yoga lights up neural pathways like the milky way, because you’re not being told what to do from an outside source, you’re relying on your own physiology, which is ancient knowledge.
The truth is, today yoga has been popularized, standardized, duplicated and sold to the public, all of whom have different needs, unique bodies, ages and conditions. While this might work for some, it certainly doesn’t work for everyone.
I understand the importance of community within a studio, referred to as Sangha, and it’s very important. However, when we cultivate a Yoga practice supported from within first, we honor the most important relationship that we can possibly have, with our source. From this alignment to source, all other relationships are positively influenced, understood and strengthened, so Sangha or community is actually expanded to be more inclusive and move beyond the studio. In this way, Yoga is the hope for humanity.
Learn and do your own daily Yoga practice for yourself, your family and the planet!
