Discussion Forum: General Discussion: Iyengar Yoga: for a beginner

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Discussion Forum: General Discussion: Iyengar Yoga:
for a beginner

Rosie1984
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Aug 21, 2004, 7:45 AM

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for a beginner	Can't Post

Hi everybody,
I started practicind Iyengar yoga about a year ago but had to stop for personal reasons. However I have just returned to classes (there is a great iyengar yoga centre where I live with great teachers) and I love it. I really enjoy the classes and love the way I feel for the rest of the day after them. My problem is that I really want to start practising at home when I don't have my classes - but whenever I do I feel like I might be doing it wrong. My teacher is so great at looking at me and changing my position if I'm doing it wrong and explaining what the proper alignment is that I don't want to do it at home and teach my self an incorrect method. Do you think you should just stick to classes to begin with so you learn the correct method - or is it better to practice as much as posible - even if this means you might be teaching yourself slightly incorrectly? Any advice would be appreciated - how did you all get started in effective private practice? Books, videos etc? Thanx!

Nadia
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Aug 22, 2004, 12:34 AM

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Re: for a beginner [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi,
Really I'm a beginner myself, I've been going to yoga classes for about a year and a half, and I've found it hard to get my own practice going too. I think that you should still practice at home even if you think you're making mistakes, because that's how you learn, and yoga is about getting to know your own body and understanding the pose and how it works with your body. Having a teacher to help you is really important, but we need to learn how to correct our own poses, to be aware of what the body is doing in each pose. My yoga teacher is always telling us to try not to let the dominant sensation of the stretch take over the whole pose and stop you from experiencing the other sensations that may be more subtle but just as important. I think the only way we can do that is by focusing on ourselves and not just relying on the teacher to show you what you're doing wrong. There's a certain amount you have to figure out yourself.

One of my problems with doing yoga at home was knowing which poses to do. My teacher plans each class differntly, so it's much easier just having someone guide through an experience than working it all out yourself, but after a while you begin to starting understanding which parts of your body you need to focus on. Sometimes I go to class thinking I'd like to do poses that stretch my hips but we do abdominals instead. The classes don't always cater for what your body needs, so you may feel like some areas of your practice are more lacking than others and vice versa. I have a book called "How to Use Yoga" by Mira Mehta. It has instructions and information on a lot of the basic poses and relaxion, and then a ten-week course you can follow. With something like this, you can combine yoga classes and a practice at home to make yoga really fulfilling.

While I'm saying all this, I haven't necessarily worked it all out properly myself either, I need to get my act together too ;-)
Good luck, Nadia.

astakoume
Regular

Aug 22, 2004, 1:05 AM

Post #3 of 3 (1143 views)
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Re: for a beginner [In reply to]	Can't Post

Interesting question, which had been bothering me as well. I have been practicing Iyengar yoga two years now without any teacher just by myself, because there was no Iyengar yoga centre or teacher in my country. I only had two weeks of beginners courses in India but with a really excelent teacher who was very precise in his directions and comments and mainly very insipirng. During these two weeks, following his advice, I was trying to keep very good notes both in my note book and in the "memory" of my own body, if you understand what I mean. So back home I went on practissing by myself the exact series of asanas I had been tought. Every once in a while I was wondering whether what I was doing was right. Every once in a while I had small injuries and small problems here and there. But I had gotten so much into that wonderful yoga situation, that I couldn't stop (and still cannot) my everyday long yoga practisse, inspite all those little problems that were arising in my body (and also my mind) every once in a while. I was trying to correct mistakes and injuries by myself, only by observing very carefully what might have coused them, which asana is soothing them, what efect each asana is having on me etc etc etc etc.
So my own conclusion is that what is really needed first of all is a good "basis" near a really good teacher . And then, if you cannot have this teacher near you all the time, just go on practissing carefully and not mechanically, regularly and consentrated, listening and respecting your own body. It will teach you all the rest by itself and that is how you will become a yogi. This is what yoga is all about. No sorry, this is one of the many things, that yoga is about.
Kristi

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