It was this time of year in 2005, right before the holiday break, when I did something I didn’t think was even on my radar screen: I took a yoga class.
This was not the very first time I’d done so; back in the early seventies, I took a few yoga classes in California, but they focused more on breathing and meditation than physical yoga, and I wasn’t ready for either. Many years later, when I needed stress reduction course credits to satisfy the California Bar continuing education requirements, I took a short series of Iyengar classes, but the teacher was more like the Navy flight school drill instructor in Top Gun than a practitioner of an Eastern spiritual tradition.
By 2005, a good ten years after the Iyengar experience, I was well into my mid fifties, and my main physical activity was mountain biking, which was great for endurance and leg muscles, a little for the upper body, but nothing for flexibility. The rides probably weren’t the best treatment for backs and shoulders.
I was also a member of the local gym, and they offered several yoga classes per week. There was a Taekwondo school around the corner, and I considered them. In the end, the promise of flexibility and no additional charges above my membership fee pushed me to give yoga another try.
I was surprised to discover how much I liked yoga. It was something essentially new and difficult, and I wasn’t very good, but the teacher was, and eventually I was able to handle the most basic asanas and from there moved forward. By late Spring, my wife and I attended a week-long yoga retreat in Mexico, where I practiced twice a day under the eagle eyes of outstanding instructors.
When I returned from the retreat, I stopped taking classes at the gym. The room they had set aside for practice was not at all guarded against the noise of the gym, and that is not the ideal environment for yoga. I was living in Fairfax, in Marin County, CA, which may well have been ground zero for yoga teachers and studios. there was no shortage of either, and over the next decade, I studied at a procession of yoga studios, all of them excellent and all within walking distance of my home.
When we lived in Bangkok for three years, I studied at several fine yoga studios. They have some of the best I’ve ever seen, with great teachers who are generally more demanding than those in America.
Since moving to Tampa, I’ve kept up my practice at studios. For the past year and a half I’ve been taking classes at Jai Dii Yoga on N. Nebraska Ave,. a great yoga studio if ever there was one..
Discovering what yoga is really about
Within a year of my reintroduction at that gym, I developed a routine where I rode my mountain bike at least once per weekend, and took three yoga classes a week. Since I was still practicing criminal law, most of these classes were early evening, after a stressful work day. I referred to my practice as “burning off the stress,” which was true, but was an oversimplification. Yoga was becoming much more than only stress reduction.
Before you start thinking I’ve gone off the rails and floated off into the spiritual plain, let me set the record straight: I’m not a Hindu, make no pretense of even knowing much about that ancient and wise tradition, other than what I’ve gleaned from my practice. I don’t claim any special powers, and have not seen any of my fellow yogis, teachers or students, possess any. We’ve all improved exponentially in the physical practice, and all of us who have stuck with it can skillfully handle numerous asanas, or yoga postures, we once thought impossible. That’s where we get into the non-physical aspects of yoga. Some call it spirituality, others refer to it as discipline, or mental outlook, or realization. It doesn’t really matter what you call it, but I prefer the yoga term “intention,” as in one sets their intention, develops it, realizes it. Those are the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in seventeen years of practice.
Yoga is all about finding balance, physical and mental. Yogis search for the “sweet spot” where they can handle any pain or discomfort related to holding a particular asana. We know we can stop at any time, assume the poses of down dog or child’s pose if we need to, and there is never, ever supposed to be any ego involved. (I didn’t say there wasn’t any; I said there’s not supposed to be any, and yoga won’t work if there is.)
Yoga is also about clearing the mind of irrelevant and distracting thoughts. In that regard, it is very much like the Theravada Buddhist mediation I’ve been practicing a little longer than I’ve practiced yoga. When on the yoga mat as when on the meditation cushion, one must strive to empty their minds of such thoughts. The thoughts will keep coming, and the practitioner learns to keep getting rid o them until they are no longer there. It’s a necessity for most asanas; imagine trying to balance on one leg while twisting your body, if you’re not paying attention to your body but instead focused on something that interferes, maybe even makes you feel bad. If you practice long enough, you will develop some of these skills. I find that after a class, I’m always relaxed mentally and physically.
A yogi’s ability to master the art of clearing the mind during practice is distinctly different from mastering the physical asanas. A yogi who is diligent and pursues the clarity needed for yoga will gain great benefits and insights even if their physical asanas are not likely to be as artful as the photo at the top of this post.
Yoga is neither difficult nor rigid.
Yoga is mot a sport nor is it competitive. The standard and the levels each yogi works at are decided by that yogi in consultation with their own mind and body. There are classes for every level, classes of different schools of yoga, some more physically demanding than others. There are classes in every community in America.
This does not mean there is no effort. There is great effort and great commitment. Remember I mentioned “setting one’s intention?” Showing up for class is the best way to do this!
You also must be consistent. How good will you become in a musical instrument if you practice only once a month? What kind of baseball pitcher could one be if they only threw the ball one day a month? How well will one learn a language studying only one hour a month?
If you want to realize the benefits of yoga, you must commit to practicing most days. this might mean taking a class, or it might mean practicing at home. (After a while, you’ll be able to with no problem.)
I have seen the great changes yoga has afforded me. I’m pretty much guaranteed three or four times a week when I can really clear my mind and reach a state of peaceful relation; those are the class days. I’m seventy three and have virtually no aches or pains, I’m as flexible as most thirty-somethings, my endurance is as good as it ever was, and no balance issues. (Still staying off ladders.) It’s now my primary physical exercise. Mountain biking is non-starter in Florida, and the vinyasa flows, especially with a slow yoga pushups, along with holding postures, prevent muscle and bone loss and really build strength and endurance.
Sometime I’m amazed that I have been practicing so long. I never saw myself as fitting the profile of a yogi. The truth is there’s no such profile. Everyone has a hidden yogi inside.
Yoga wouldn’t have lasted all these thousands of years if it didn’t work.
