Day 276 May 7, 2011

detail of acrylic painting

I learn to trust in Iyengar yoga classes.  Trust my teacher.  Trust myself.  Try new things that I've never done before within my own body, move in entirely new ways.  The students who come to class come from many walks in life: teachers, artists, counsellors, acupuncturists, finanacial planners, dentists, mothers, cooks, comedians, contractors, business people, students, etc.  Why they return is that they learn to see how to approach the yoga asanas with clarity.

The teacher demonstrates the pose and then you try.  Then the teacher demonstrates the common problems we encounter in the pose.  A student tries the pose and the class is asked to watch and learn how to adjust, to make a closer approximation towards the classic pose with these adjustments.  And when you watch the teacher make adjustments and move the student who is demonstrating, then you see how the student trusts the teacher.  You feel it yourself when it is your turn to be adjusted.

It can be a lot, the adjustments.  You don't realize just how far you actually can move until the teacher adjusts you.  It is a lightbulb moment to feel yourself move into a pose where you didn't think you could go.  It involves trust.

I try to explain it this way sometimes.  Studying Iyengar yoga is like learning how to go on vacation within your own body.  You go somewhere new where you've never been before and you come back changed.