Choreography vs. Connection
“The most profound pilgrimage I can ever make is within my own body” —Saraha
Often group yoga classes can feel more like a dance class, with students moving together all doing more or less the same thing. Yoga teachers give instructions of what a body should look like in a pose, how it should feel and even how the student should feel in response; rather than the student themselves noticing what their body, mind and breath needs. This makes group classes easier to manage, and students can zone out whilst still feeling they are doing something beneficial. But how beneficial is this?
Differences in body, muscle memory, patterns/habits, age, lifestyle and psychological state all affect how and what we feel in body, breath and mind. For some, lying prone with an eye pillow and a blanket can cause a sense of panic whilst another person may feel calm/relaxed.
As yoga teacher trainees we are taught the “classical” postures as well as the contra-indications, and some adaptions.
We tell people with tight hamstrings may need to bend their knees, people with injured wrists may need to come onto their forearms.
In this method the pose, rather than the function, is the focus. The form gives us a start point, but it also limits us. Is it possible to find a balance?
Moving quickly through intricate postures in a flow offers minimal opportunity to explore individual needs and body/breath/mind response. A student that moves quickly in and out of a pose that is triggering will find it difficult to pinpoint what caused the feeling of overwhelm. Moving and exploring using interoception slowly and mindfully offers a deeper understanding.
An alternate approach might instead be to first identify the intention. How do you want to feel?
If you want to explore strengthening the musculature around the shoulders there are several options; plank, dolphin and pressing the hands together to name but a few, and within these options many adaptions.
Instead of habitually fitting bodies to forms, maybe a creative felt-sense approach would be more effective.
Play, exploration and creativity can bring a greater sense of self-awareness, empowerment and joy.
Imagine a class where instead of being given a form to fit their body into, people were given the instruction to find comfortable shapes with their bodies that made them feel, for example, strong in their arms. We might see some people in shapes that look like plank or down dog or crawling or hanging or pushing their hands together or pushing against each other; or we might find entirely new shapes.
In this method, our role is to help students find deep connection with their unique body/mind/breath. To learn to develop greater interoception to identify what their body needs, to learn to trust their own judgment, to trust their body; to make/explore their own adjustments and forms.
If we invited students to “notice what brings a greater sense of calm” rather than "lie down with an eye pillow" we might see students standing, walking, lying down, sitting with eyes open or eyes closed.
An intermediary measure that may avoid a student feeling overwhelmed by this open approach may be to emphasize what feeling in the body/mind/breath we are exploring, offering a variety of suggestions of possible postures and movements as starting points.
There are as many ways to reintegration as there are people practicing to find it. We must remember that asanas are relatively new to yoga, and so are not sacrosanct. Traditionally it was unusual to practice in a group, other than soldiers training, and the highly individualised yoga practice would have been shared by a guide to one student.
In order to honour this practice, and work towards its true goals, we must explore ways in which we can facilitate empowerment through interoception, awareness and self-knowledge.
We, as yoga teachers, should aim to make ourselves obsolete, enabling our students to find their own individual sense of what they need to find a greater sense of peace.