Be interested more of yourself rather than others

Too many a times, we might not have noticed that we tended to 'observe' how others in the class are progressing, rather than that more intimate connection of our own body and mind. We allow our senses to latch on to others' way of tying their hair, the height of their raised legs, the ongoing commentaries of others' practices, etc. This becomes not much of a difference of ourselves in our usual daily lives when we are attending a class to be guided to experience a greater intimacy with ourselves. It is a private and personal date with ourselves, we have to respect the date, like the way we put ourselves up at our best during the first date with a person we like. Are you ready to date, again?

Action rather than Movement

Many classes have diluted themselves to simply move the body segments to flow from one to another pose, lacking in the understanding to use the appropriate connective tissues and skeletal structure to abduct, adduct, extend, flex, etc, in order to create the stability before allowing the pose benefits to set in. More often than not, most practitioners end up simply moving bodily parts in carbon copying what the instructors and other students present. At the same time, the instructions shared to the class are of movement oriented than action oriented. Are we also flowing with the main stream trend or we may like to act on what is really beneficial to our personal growth in our daily experiences too?

Relaxed rather than Collapsed

Though we are engaged in the poses, we are at the same time relaxed. We isolate our breath away from the muscular work and breath in a relaxing manner. The jaws are not clenched, the teeth are not biting, the tongue is not hard, the anus is not squeezed, etc. Neither are we in a collapsed mode where we simply let all consciousness drop down to gravity and just physically present ourselves on the mat, but with no awareness to our bodily sensations. Are we going through our daily lives in an engaged and relaxed way or simply tensed up and with no awareness to why, what and how we are doing what we are doing?

Engaged rather than Tensed

One of the many approaches seen on practitioners is being tensed rather than being engaged. Many may bring an intention to a class to achieve, to accomplish, to attain, to pursue, etc, and give themselves a "no pain, no gain" approach when they practise the poses. This is one of the many worldly habits we bring to yet another class in the practitioner's point of view, which is a conditioning from other 'classes' since young - school class, extra curriculum class, tuition class, swimming class, piano class, ...class..es....etc...The nature of a Yoga class is to empower oneself to engage in the guidance of the teacher and with no agenda to fulfil. This will allow oneself to experience what unfolds from each class. We slowly understand how 1 muscle work affect another bone's responding action, etc, and deepen one's understanding how this miraculous entity called the BODY, functions, and gradually translate this new physical and mental awareness out of our mats into our daily activities. We are then ENGAGED in our own lives, and not simply being led and got tensed up....

Feeling rather than Thinking

We are highly geared to think and we also bring this mode of mind to a class. Thinking is a result from filtering sensory input through many layers within the mind process and within split seconds, we react. Many times, we see ourselves concurrently following a teacher's demonstration (either by himself or using another student's body) of certain poses, almost imitating, rather than to wait for the step-by-step instruction from the teacher after the demonstration. We almost always like to get a-HEAD (brain thinking). In the process, we miss out the experience of feeling ourselves attempting the poses and get ahead to present a form/shape. This seems very much alike of us in the modern day to get as many things done as possibly within a short period of time. Let's slow things down, and allow the Heart to feel. It's to be safer and respectful to the body's strengths and limitations.

Experience rather than Performance

When we allow ourselves to step onto the mat to do an Asana practice, we will like to contain our awareness within our bodily experiences. Most practitioners bring their daily worldly experiences onto the mat when they have their supposedly "destressing" practice. They assess with their analytical minds, comparing themselves with others in the class, chat before and after the poses, pursue poses at the expense of moving beyond bodily capacity, etc, very much allowing their habitual behaviors to manifest on the mat, which is moving away from what the practice really intended to guide one into - to look at one's habits, both wholesome and unwholesome. Are we ready not to identify With ourselves and just be a yogi, simply listen to the instructions and allow ourselves to feel?

Ease rather than struggle

The practice does not advocate pushing oneself into the poses being offered by teachers. At all times during the learning and understanding of the poses, we should consciously feel and connect to the bodily sensations and with that heightened awareness, empower ourselves to put the right amount of effort and wait for the experience to come. Many practitioners may mistakenly end themselves up in pursuing a pose, from the impressions they had from magazine covers, teachers' demo, etc, and try putting themselves into the shape of the poses first before a step by step progress into the pose, ending one up in a struggle rather than ease. Too many a times, one may end up causing injury to oneself. Are we also handling our daily living experiences with awareness and ease, or pushy and struggle?

Stability rather than flexibility

One of the many misrepresented and misconceived ideas about practising the poses of Yoga is having to be or wanting to be flexible. The more appropriate direction one may take when starting out a practice is to create more and more stability - both body and mind. A stiff person can have stablility in his body if all sides of his body maintain an equilibrium of strength and flexibility (or "stiffness"). A flexible person may not have stability in his body if all sides of his body may lack an equilibrium of strength and lotsa elasticity. Most of us, through lack of understanding the structural usage of our body, usually put our body in many lack of awareness and thus weaken certain muscles, overuse many more, leading to an inequilibrium of strength and flexibility, creating instability in the joints, causing discomfort and pain. If one is to start an Asana(pose)-based practice, one does not rush to present the poses due to one's impressions of a photo one last saw, or a teacher's demo, or co-students' presentations of the poses. More appropriately, attentively listen for the instructions and allow oneself to recognize one's limitations and strengths in the body coming from each and every pose.

Welcome to my Blog

This is a blog about what I came to learn about the actual practice of Yoga, its largely misunderstood aspects and my personal experiences from the practice that I may best relate appropriately to the scriptures.