Inspiration

                     


It was time to remember why I loved yoga

I had been feeling a bit jaded for a while, as a yoga teacher and practitioner. So, with the help of a couple of friends, I looked back through my life, to see what was my original inspiration for practising and teaching yoga. To re-inspire me.

To be honest, when I stood at the doorway of my very first yoga class, way back in my past, I just simply knew that whatever yoga was, and I had no ideas about yoga, that I would be doing it for the rest of my life, and that it was part of my destiny.

So that wasn't an inspiration. But I had physical damage from an incident, and it just was not getting better. So, I went to my very first yoga class, and, when I got home, I practised, everyday, a couple of things, whether it was flexibilities, asanas, or pranayama, that I could remember from that class. And every week, I would add whatever else I could remember, in the order that I could remember them. I had a doctors appointment six weeks after my first class, and, amazingly, the damage had been reversed. My first experience of how powerful yoga was.

My first inspirations

I did a bit everyday, and I did it all because it made me feel good. This was my first inspiration, for me. That yoga simply made me feel this way. A couple of years later, I started teaching yoga, and that also was such a big inspiration, knowing that the class would also make people feel good. All I did was teach exactly what I had been taught, exactly how I had been taught. I figured that if it made an ordinary person like me feel fantastic, then it would also make other people feel the same.

And I don't mean just feeling good physically. No, it's more than that. One feels more emotionally stable, and our perception and focus are clearer. The mental chatter and stomach churning switches off. One becomes calmer. What a blessing.

Later that first year of learning yoga, I also learnt off Dr Swami Gitananda who did a humble tour of New Zealand. Specifically, I learnt how to do proper yoga breathing and a comprehensive system for it, plus for breathing problems. It was very precise, and transforming. I experienced, and was inspired by, the powerful effects of prana (life force), and the breath. But this wasn't my biggest inspiration, for myself, nor as a teacher.

A big reason for remembering our inspiration

Swamiji was adamant that yoga was supposed to make us feel good, and, if it didn't, then you were doing the wrong yoga for you. This is such a wonderful inspiration to keep in mind: teach your students how to feel good via the practices of yoga.

I have spent quite a few years in a situation where the yoga that was being taught was extreme. In every way. We "powered up" with asana, pranayama, bandhas, meditations. Even the yoga nidra was intense. A lot of people loved it, they liked this approach. I didn't. It created inflammation in me, and made my mind restless and anxious. It was totally against my values with my inspiration for teaching yoga.

How to give a beautiful yoga class

I like the calm and sublime results, so even if I teach a very hard class (asanas, pranayama etc), I also use the final poses and pranayama to slow down to induce quietness. It's a very good approach for a hard class. Then a short relaxation to take one even closer to one's essence. This will make anyone feel wonderful. And it means that I stay true to my original inspiration.