[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”3.0.74″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]Nowadays when you tell someone that you dedicate yourself to teaching yoga you face the inevitable question: What kind of yoga do you practice – do you teach?
The response that the person expects can vary between: hatha, vinyasa, ashtanga, kundalini, iyengar, yin, jivamukti, restorative, scarabelli, kashmir yoga, acroyoga, sivananda, satyananda … When you tell that person the yoga style What practices do we help you associate this type of yoga with a way of moving, speed, rhythm, sequence of postures, breaths, a teacher and an interpretation of the practice of yoga that comes from the interpretation and revelations of a person that depending on the style and / or from the tradition we are talking about, has gone through a great part of its own path of self-recognition, inquiry, self-knowledge.
Yoga is not just flexibility, strength, power, even health …
We believe that yoga is flexibility, strength, power, health, wellbeing and provides a longer life, but after all yoga is nothing more than learning to walk through life in the slightest possible way, accepting who we are with our virtues and our shortcomings. Little has to do with knowing how to do a posture perfectly or being able to hold your breath for long periods of time. The practice in yoga is practical from the moment it helps us discover something new about ourselves, about who we are, the reason for our existence, if there is one.
Belonging to a spiritual community is necessary to gain strength at the beginning
It is true that belonging to a sangha (a spiritual community to lean on) can be a nice way to stay in practice. I understand that the beginner or the one who has not delved too much into the philosophy and teachings of yoga can still identify with a single style of yoga. Moreover, it is beneficial to start learning the forms, breathing, self-knowledge and reading philosophy of a certain current and / or style for a period of time. It is important to learn a sequence, a way of practicing and self-exploration that is already chewed and that comes from a source that has gone through a process of self-discovery. But under my opinion, sooner or later it is good to detach from the name and form to enter the path of self-knowledge that is much more personal and intimate.
I mask myself with yoga styles, teachers, ways of practicing to give guidance to people who want to attend my classes. But in the end my practice and my way of giving classes come from something deeper that depends not only on my teachers, to whom I respect so much and I thank their teachings. They come from my childhood, the way my parents raised me, the context in which I lived and lived, the trips I’ve made, the people I’ve met on the way, the books I’ve read, the good and bad experiences that have happened to me, the interpretations and the revelations that I have had. In short of my life experience.
Therefore to be anchored in the style is to be anchored in the practice of yoga, is to always want to practice the same thing during all the seasons of the year, all the stages of our life, all the moods. To be anchored in a single style of yoga is attachment for the fear of not being recognized, not being loved, the fear of not being anyone, the fear of not being able to be oneself.
The practice in summer will not be the same as in winter. The practice in a tropical climate can not be the same as in a Baltic climate. The practice can not be equal to 20 years than to 70 years. The practice can not be the same for a person living in the vortex of a city like New York or for the person who lives in a village in the middle of the Himalayas. The practice can not be the same for an entrepreneur in Barcelona or for an ascetic who lives lost in the mountains of the Catalan Pyrenees.
It is essential to clarify that I feel that the concept that ordinary people have about yoga separates them from meditation. Yoga is the tool that helps to become the master of the fluctuations of the mind and meditation is full consciousness of the process and the moment of our lives. Yoga and meditation are the same.
There are many ways to practice yoga
There are many ways to practice yoga such as: reading, dancing, studying, playing music or just being a good head of family, caring for your children, sisters, friends, family. There are so many ways of practicing yoga that if in the West we could see the different forms of yoga practiced in the East we would realize that what we practice the vast majority today has little to do with yoga.
It is when we leave the name, the style, a particular form taught to do something when we can begin to practice, create, do from the sensation, the emotion and from the divine creative force that emanates from our interior.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
