Personal account of a yoga teacher: We all start somewhere

Opening the door to yoga

Yoga is a liberating and wonderful way of life. Yoga guides us in how we relate to ourselves, others and our environment. Yoga cultivates stillness in our busy lives, creating peace and calmness. Yoga creates inner space to help us reflect, learn and grow. Yoga is so much more than the image portrayed by advertising and social media. Yet here we are.

Over a series of blogs, I want to reflect upon my personal experience of yoga, as well as becoming a yoga teacher. What yoga has been like for me and dipping my toe into a new industry having followed my heart. Like many things, the experience has been mixed, mostly good, but sometimes sad. Joyful and frustrating. A binary experience. The account is very specific in terms of time and place based on my own personal experience (i.e. Duncan’s lens), so I make no claims to generalisation. We all experience the world in different ways and yoga is no exception.

Becoming a yoga teacher is a big step for anyone requiring commitment, effort and tenacity, often on top of busy lives at home or work or both. The training commitment for traditional yoga such as Hatha is challenging with a varied curriculum including anatomy and physiology, history and philosophy of yoga, on top of learning how to safely plan, sequence and deliver classes. The training takes months with regular assessments to transform individuals with a passion for yoga into professionals with the knowledge and skills to teach others.

Magnetism of yoga

I discovered yoga by accident after an injury having been told that yoga was a good way to heal. I also wanted to try something new. I can clearly remember attending my first Ashtanga yoga class, leaping and contorting myself into new shapes in time with a relentless count. Then reading the brilliant book Power Yoga by Beryl Bender Birch. I learnt that yoga was hard work, challenging and fascinating. I also felt its physical benefits including better strength and flexibility, and how it aided my recovery.

The more I went to classes, studied yoga and talked with yogis, the more I realised that yoga was greater than what I initially thought. Yoga offered an alternative way to navigate the world based on ancient wisdom. What yoga offered was so different to the values and goals I grew up with and those that dominated work with its preoccupation about striving for success and wealth. Yoga offered a beguiling and wonderful practice that redefined the meaning of success and wealth.

My professional background is social research. This work is grounded in psychology, sociology and social theory, and I specialise in equalities. My work is evidence based. Therefore, getting my head around some of the yogic concepts (e.g.  prana, doshas and chakras) was challenging to start. However, as my own personal practice increased, so did my willingness to be open to the vibes of yoga and trust the ancient wisdom. For me this meant letting go entrenched ways of thinking and assessing the world. This openness has allowed yoga to take root and start to grow within me.

Yoga is a recipe for living life

Yoga provides a framework for the way we interact with others and how we relate to ourselves. The ancient text of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras defines eight limbs or steps to Raja or royal yoga. The first of the eight limbs focus on our attitude and behaviour towards others and the wider world, and how we internally develop and nurture ourselves. Yoga teaches us to create the space to reflect on our behaviour and consider the consequences of our actions or omissions. It shows us how to enrich our lives to create balance and equilibrium.

Yoga illuminates an alternative perspective on how we go about the mundane aspects of our daily lives. Rather than go through the day on automatic pilot mode, to be present in what we are doing. For example, a branch of yoga teaches us to separate reward from action. We apply ourselves to any given task with total dedication but remain neutral towards the reward we might receive. The attachment to the reward rather than dedication to the task itself often creates imbalance as the fruits of our labour may fall well below our expectations. This subtle shift in consciousness has helped me within the spheres of my personal and professional life by reducing negative energy.  

Yoga is more than a pose

The image of yoga within the UK is strongly influenced by the consumer market and the social media, with a strong leaning towards perfection in complex yoga poses. This image of yoga may be attractive to some and draw them to yoga classes, but it is also likely to have the opposite effect on a large segment of the population who may see yoga as being inaccessible to them. It can also make classes feel competitive resulting leaving some feeling marginalised. For these reasons a good yoga teacher will break down barriers to make the class accessible and inclusive, so that all the participants leave feeling a bit better than when they started.

That’s why I love yoga classes where the teacher helps students to understand why we adopt a certain pose; this could be symbolic or relate to how energy is channelled in the body according to yogic philosophy. By understanding the reason for the pose, we can then focus on feeling the pose. This is different to seeking perfection in the appearance of the pose. Yoga becomes more accessible to a wider population when the teacher is mindful of the different needs of the class participants and carefully adapts or modifies poses, along with using props. This approach builds confidence and helps people to feel happier in their own skin. You do not need to perform a pose perfectly to feel the benefits of yoga.

Magic happens in the stillness

Yoga is the ultimate way to unwind. At a physiological level yoga activates not only the sympathetic nervous system, but also the parasympathetic nervous system. Yoga gets you hot but cools you down blissfully. Yoga has a subtle power within its system, drawing on conscious breath-work (i.e. pranayama), awareness of the body in asana and providing tools to alter our state of consciousness (e.g. meditation). These qualities help bring about a sense of presence, peacefulness and stillness. Yoga is also truly inclusive because if you can breathe, you can experience the magic of yoga.

Consequently, yoga is not just about striking a cool pose or tying yourself up into knots. Indeed, the physical asana aspect of yoga plays a small part in traditional practice. In the words of Patanjali, asana should be about being ‘comfortable’ and ‘steady’. A good yoga teacher will help students find this ease in the physical poses. A natural sense of balance and equilibrium. There is no gain through pain.  This is another truism within yoga, as non-harm to self and others is a key principle of yoga.

Nevertheless, yoga does have tremendous physical benefits, which, as an athlete or fitness fan will improve your performance and recovery. Whatever your sport, be it athletics, cycling, football, golf or weightlifting, yoga will improve strength, flexibility and help prevent injuries. However, yoga will also train you to be aware in the body and feel that optimum point where you are comfortable and steady. Yoga provides a synchronicity between breath and movement. Yoga stops the ego in its tracks, teaching us to become aware of our limitations and know when to back-off or push forward. Yoga teaches us that we are at our peak when we feel comfortable and steady in physical practice.

Yoga and me

Yoga has enriched my life and guided me through difficult times. Yoga has taught me to value the journey rather than the destination. Yoga has given me with the tools to find inner stillness and focus. To be present. For example, when I take my dog Paddy out for a walk, I never wear headphones, which means that I can hear the beauty of birdsong, sense the wind blowing through the trees and feel the warmth of the sun on my skin; it also means that I share the joy of this time and place with Paddy.

Therefore, yoga has gifted me with a way to find happiness in the mundane and find the extraordinary within the ordinary. Yoga helps me to make choices, like ditching the headphones, to allow my senses to open so that I engage with to the world around me.

Yoga has rebuilt me and showed me a different way to live. Yoga has created stillness within my topsy-turvy life. Within this stillness, yoga provides clarity by clearing away the fog created by the ego and inner voice. Yoga has helped me to see the potential within myself. As a yoga teacher I want to help others take their first tentative step on yoga’s wonderful journey.