by Laurie Mazzarella
I think I hear this remark more than any other when I tell people I am a yoga instructor. My answer, from now on, is going to be telling the story of my first yoga teacher back in the 70's. She told those of us in her class that her first teacher was in a wheelchair. More than just about anything I have heard since, this drives home that yoga is not just about being flexible in body. It is about connecting intimately to your body and mind. It is honoring the wisdom of your own body and not thinking you should look, in a yoga asana or not, like the person in front of the class or next to you. Yoga is connecting with yourself. As the story of the yoga teacher in the wheelchair demonstrates, yoga is not only something practiced by the movement of the body, but is just as much a movement and connection with the mind. Maybe it is more important to say that flexibility of the mind will help you practice yoga.
When I first started yoga, there was less emphasis on the asanas, or poses. My first classes took place in a darkened upper hall at a small church in Venice Beach. We not only did yoga asanas, we chanted, meditated and focused on breath, or pranayama. We went to class for the inner connection with hopes of further acknowledging the connection to something much larger than ourselves. We did this whether we were able to do a perfect full shoulder stand, forward fold or fish pose. We moved in a darkened room without music in hopes of increasing our awareness of ourselves. Sometimes I miss this kind of yoga class where the emphasis was on going inward. I think they were less intimidating than the way we have class a lot of times now.
So, remember the story of the yoga teacher in a wheelchair the next time you think you are not flexible enough to do yoga. I believe almost anyone who wants to practice yoga can practice yoga. There are many variations and adaptations to the physical poses just as there are to the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of yoga. Flexibility helps, but maybe flexibility of our mind is more important than flexibility of the body.
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