Just got back from the "Candlelight Yoga" class at my gym. And I'm hurting, not in a good way. I'm also still tense, and trying to let go of it, because in the end, it just doesn't matter that much, right?
I wrote out a long essay about how craptacular the experience my husband and I had in this class was, but I feel like sharing that negativity isn't going to help anyone, least of all me. So instead, some pointers for any yoga teachers that might be reading this.
1. When students who are new to you walk in the room, don't announce their presence with a "looks like we have some New Year's resolution people in the room!" Especially if one of those people is a fat woman. It sends the wrong message. Just welcome new students gracefully and keep your (in this case, wrong) assumptions to yourself.
2. When leading a yoga class, think about how disruptive it is to your students to have them move their mats four times in the space of an hour so that you don't have to move off of yours. Instead, walk around the room.
3. When someone tries to tell you that there is a totally-new-to-yoga student in the room who is having a hard time, don't interrupt them. Listen, and then use that information to help this particular student through the rest of the class, rather than basically ignoring their needs.
I'm glad that her class wasn't the first one I took, otherwise I would have been completely discouraged. Now my husband and I are both in bad moods. Which isn't fun.
There's two more yoga instructors at this gym. One of them teaches 75% of the classes, and I'm hoping that she is a much better instructor.
In the meantime, I'm trying to do some stretches to calm my poor hip, which was injured a bit in the class. And I'm also focusing on the fact that this was a learning experience. Tomorrow morning's class will hopefully be better. New teacher, new day, new start.
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Comments
I've been doing yoga for 39 years. It's gone through enormous changes in this country since my first pristine introduction to it. That being said, you don't have to "know" about it. You certainly don't have to be coddled into it. In fact it's the diametric opposite of the coddling ethos.
Yoga = self recognizance. You hear the pose called, you refine the pose to match what the teacher is saying and what you see the rest of the class doing. You are in a pact with the rest of the practitioners to keep up with them and NOT lose the pose. Your body will get it if you are there with that intention. If you are there with the intention of the teacher coming over and instructing you into perfection—well, I'd say don't bother being there. If you need to start by taking a yoga workshop that goes through the poses slowly and thoroughly, then do that before taking classes.
Intention, intention, intention. Go to a sincere yoga environment. Go there with sincerity and humility—and the balls to do what you never thought you could. I have injured myself in a yoga class. Once—in all the years I've been doing it. The injury had to do with my mental state and a less than committed teacher.
Yoga is not a work-out class. It is not calisthenics. It's a physical form of meditation. If you can't find a class that fullfills that for you, don't bother with it. That's my 39-year-long advice.
It would be nice if everyone had enough body awareness (that is, awareness of how the body moves, knowledge of what muscles do when you move them in certain ways, the ability to "listen" and settle into the poses) to be able to "get" the poses. It would be nice if everyone could instinctively feel what their body was doing without looking in a mirror. I've got some of that as muscle memory - I've been doing yoga off and on for almost 20 years (I was going to say 15, but I'm 34, and I started when I was 14/15), and I was a dancer. But my husband doesn't have that naturally. At all. He's a bit uncoordinated and believes that yoga will help him with that.
So when we go to an explicitly "all levels" class, I expect that the teacher will offer basic instruction on proper form and body mechanics, and guide students fully through the poses, instead of giving half or no instruction.
You know, of course, that guys are not limber like we are. A few are "double jointed" but most are pretty stiff. So kudos to them for trying and sticking with it. If your hubby gives it a good try, he'll get it. He'll feel it. You won't have to pressure him about it or encourage him after that.
Good luck! What I said in my other comment about doing workshops and then doing classes is fairly good advice.
http://open.salon.com/blog/alkeme/2010/01/07/sacred_sahus_maha_kumbh_mela_2010