Yoga practice is enjoyed by many people for many reasons. Many people start yoga to achieve physical benefits, such as increased flexibility and strength, pain relief, or better sleep. Some people start yoga looking for inner peace, anxiety relief, depression balm, anger management, and a sense of calm. These benefits are all part of the overall context of yoga as spiritual practice. It doesn’t matter how many students realize the mind-body connection as soon as they roll their mat. Yoga practice builds an inner bridge between these subtler realms sooner or later.
Let’s say you have a student who practices three times per week. This will increase your flexibility for other activities and sports. These students will find yoga challenging, with some classes offering difficult sequences. The body is challenged by arm balances, backbends and deep twists as well as forward folds. These asanas are often demonstrated by teachers who have been practicing yoga for years with deceptive ease. Many new students leave yoga with mixed feelings. They don’t know if the practice is right for them.
You may be able to dig deep and find the right class for you. It can be time-consuming to test each class and each teacher. Some classes are too easy for beginners, while others are too difficult. Online yoga practice is becoming more popular among students. It can be difficult to navigate the Netflix for yoga. However, not everyone is tech-savvy. Online streaming classes can vary in length. Some classes are an hour long and recreate the sweaty feeling of an in-person class. Some are shorter, allowing you to fit it into your busy schedule. Although the longer class might seem to be more valuable, it may prove harder to fit in the entire hour. Because the mind always believes that those 10-20 minutes will come “later”, it is easier to procrastinate in shorter classes.
It can be difficult to find a It’s not always easy to find a partner. It must be easy to communicate, accessible, trustworthy, and respectful. It’s difficult for students to come back to class if they don’t have that. These days, there are many places and yoga teachers that offer yoga. As someone who is a yoga teacher, I would recommend that all students search for the best teacher. Great teachers are those who have been immersed in traditional yoga teachings from India. They also understand the rich philosophical, and spiritual practices of yoga. Let it be someone who has enough inspiration and charisma to pull you back to the mat on days when doubts, indecision, or quitting may arise.
Every student of yoga will tell you that although yoga is difficult, it’s well worth the effort. Yoga can sometimes be painful, but that’s part and parcel of the practice. It’s a good feeling that makes your body, mind and spirit feel better. Tapas is the Sanskrit term that refers to the need to experience certain pains in order to purify oneself along the path towards yoga. This is the most important lesson in yoga philosophy. It is a reminder that while some suffering is to be expected, it is not inevitable. Instead, any effort put into practice is never lost and is always accumulated on the long journey to peace and happiness.
By Kino MacGregor
Kino MacGregor is an international yoga teacher with over 20 years experience in Ashtanga Yoga and 18 years in Vipassana meditation. She was one of the few people who received the certification to teach Ashtanga Yoga. She spreads yoga’s message around the globe with over 1,000,000 followers on Instagram and 700,000 subscribers to YouTube and Facebook. Yoga is not just about making shapes to Kino. It’s a daily practice that allows people to tune in to their spiritual center and feel the peace of the Eternal Divinity. She aims to make traditional yoga tools accessible to all ages, sizes, ethnicities, and shapes. Yoga is for everyone, she believes.