or, So You Wanna Do A Yoga
2023-08-21
Hi! First of all, I’m really excited that you are interested in doing yoga! I think everybody can benefit from yoga, and that everybody should try it.
Your mileage may vary, but my personal experience is that yoga has made me a stronger, nicer person. It’s great for building core strength and balance. And also patience and contentment.
The word yoga means “to yoke,” or to connect, bind, unify. It is the practice of connecting breath to movement, mind to body, self to universal awareness.
There is no avoiding the fact that yoga is also most definitely an ancient Hindu spiritual practice. What we practice in the west is a secularized form of yoga asana by way of 1920s Swedish gymnastics. I don’t know if you need to worry too much about appropriation, but it is important to recognize the roots of the practice.
I don’t know why they’re called limbs. The tree metaphor never really resonated with me. There are eight “steps” to yoga:
YAMA: Ethics like truthfulness and non-harming
NIYAMA: Disciplines like cleanliness, self-study, and dedication
ASANA: Posture. This is the part that we mostly think of as “yoga”. Originally this practice only exists to prepare your body for long periods of seated meditation.
PRANAYAMA: Breath work and energy work.
PRATYAHARA: Withdrawal of the senses from external stimuli
DHARANA: Concentrating on a single object
DHYANA: Meditation, absorption.
SAMADHI: Becoming one with universal awareness. Pure consciousness. The end goal of yogic meditation is “All Things” as opposed to the end goal of Buddhist meditation which is “No Thing.”
Western yoga today is mostly just asana with maybe a little bit of pranayama.
I share this with you just to give you an idea of the true scope and breadth of yoga so that you start to understand that it can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Breathing is yoga. Cultivating energy is yoga. Being honest and peaceful is yoga. Meditating is yoga.
Anything that grounds you to the present moment is yoga. Anything that connects you to your mind and to your body is yoga.
So you wanna do some yoga asana.
That’s great!
A very common place to start is doing a couple classes at home with “Yoga With Adriene,” arguably the most popular free yoga youtube channel there is.
clothes: Wear some comfy clothes that you can move around in. Probably your running clothes are fine. You’ll be upside-down-ish sometimes in forward fold and in downward dog, so if you have a billowy shirt, you might want to tuck that in a little bit at some point.
mat?: A yoga mat is nice to have. Mostly just so you don’t slip around. For as long as you’re practicing at home, you can practice on the floor or on a beach towel or something. Even when you start taking studio classes, most places have mats you can borrow for free or for a small rental fee.
Yoga is this funny thing where people come together as a group to be alone on their mats.
That is to say that you should not worry about looking like you don’t know what you’re doing, or doing the wrong thing. Everybody is going to be concentrating so hard on their own stuff that nobody will notice what you’re doing.
Choosing a studio is a very personal choice. Every studio has its own vibe and culture, ranging from Super Spiritual to Group Fitness.
Here are some tips for spotting a good teacher:
They greet you when you arrive, ask your name, and ask if you have any injuries.
They circle the room and give verbal and/or hands-on adjustments instead of staying on their mat and doing the class with you.
They “mirror” your movements when demonstrating so you don’t have to think too hard about right vs. left.
Vinyasa: 90% of yoga classes out there. It features flowing movements synced to your breath. Hatha and Ashtanga yoga are basically vinyasa.
Iyengar: Longer holds, focused on precise alignment. Lots of props.
Bikrim: set sequence at high temperatures. “Hot yoga” is similar but does not necessarily follow the same script.
Kundalini: Okay there’s a snake coiled up at the base of your spine and you want to awaken it and allow it to journey up through all your chakras through asana and energetic pranayama and kriya like elbowing yourself in the ribs over and over.
Yin: Taoist yoga. Very long holds with lots of props. Focused on soft tissue release. Superficially similar to restorative.
Restorative: Lay around and relax
Nidra: Actual sleepy time yoga. You can expect to drift off during class as the instructor guides you through a meditation designed to help you sleep.
You are not entitled to the fruits of your labor. It is a practice. There are postures that you may never be able to do because of the way your bones are. But after you practice it a hundred times, you may find that you are closer. The point it to focus on the practice without attachment to outcomes, without focusing on results.
The way you show up on your mat is the way you show up in life. Some teachers will try to put you in an uncomfortable position just so you can see how you react. This is an opportunity to practice patience, breathing, and non-reaction. So that when you find yourself in an uncomfortable position off your mat perhaps in a more high stakes situation, you will be more able and better equipped to respond the same way. With intention instead of with reaction. With patience and strength.