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TeachStreet offers these tips for getting the most from your practice, every single time:
We are all beginners at something, sometime. I know many yogis who have been practicing for years who still feel like beginners, myself included! Yoga is a process of constant growth, and the 'level' at which someone performs a yoga pose does not always correlate with their internal knowledge and growth along the yogic path. Therefore, don't let your experience as a first-timer feel isolating.
Nuts-and-bolts note: It helps to know what to expect from class. Wear comfortable clothing that affords you a range of motion. Watch others when you arrive: generally, you'll take your shoes off, place your personal items in an out of the way place, and set your mat up. Sit quietly until class begins or find the teacher and introduce yourself. Make sure your cell phone is turned OFF.
You are not being judged in a yoga class. Yoga teachers are there to help you work within each pose in a way that is safe and appropriate to your body. They aren't walking around thinking about how inflexible, weak, or awkward you are, so you shouldn't be preoccupied with those things either! Turn your focus away from the people around you in the class and try to approach the movements with an attitude of openness, playfulness, and self-acceptance.
Nuts-and-bolts note: Expect the teacher to swing by during poses and offer modified versions or to show you how to use props to support your body in the poses. Feel free to ask questions of the teacher when s/he comes to your mat to assist you, or after class.
Perfection isn't the point. Yoga is not just for those who are flexible, strong, thin, enlightened, etc. There is no such thing as a perfect yoga pose, or a yoga teacher or student who has a perfect grasp on the poses and what lies beyond them. Yoga is an opportunity to come to your mat just as you are, and work with whatever that is. At the end of the day, yoga is a process, and every single person in any yoga class is in a different place with respect to that process, even that guy in the corner who's twisted into the most advanced pose. A "perfect" practice is one in which you are completely present, observing your thoughts, feelings, movements, and relationship to the practice that day. That kind of presence takes a lifetime to master.
I have not been going to Yoga after hearing from a medical doctor that we needed to get an injury x-rayed first. In the meantime, I was pretty wowed by a book that I found written in the 1950's about a mysterious practice from ancient India. I learned that monks were able to live in caves during Tibetan snow storms for years at a time. The monks also managed to accomplish this task was via inner warmth, without much more than a robe. In short, Yoga is a life saver if you can harness its connection to circulation. I was assuming at the time this was the premise for differing styles, some of my prior classes were like running in place the entire time! That wasn't so much tricky but hard to understand why to do something that active indoors. Suddenly it all became clear, for heat! I didn't read one line in that huge old book about how fancy the poses were. The idea was to move your blood/energy/chi to attain a state of composure. I applaud your reminder not to obsess over tricky poses or stinky mats. Imagine a yogi in Tibet living in a cave, did they have much room to worry about must? Ha Ha, well perhaps this is a negative image but I am repeatedly inspired by the concepts in Yoga just as much as the actual participation. To all of you caring about your heart especially, wishing you a very Warm hello and continued enjoyment of your inner light. Namaste, Cindy
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