The initial experience of yoga

One of my favourite things about sharing this Mysore-style ashtanga yoga with new students is how the experience of the stillness of yoga is available right from the beginning.I've heard variations of this expression so many times:  "I've never done yoga but I know I'd be terrible at it". Inherent in this statement  is, of course, a very big misunderstanding of what yoga is (I've written about this a bit before). Of course, some people find the practice a bit easier than others and that is no different to anything else in life. The important part though, the internal part, is what I'm really interested in. It's irrelevant whether or not a student can touch their toes on day one.It's the struggle to touch one's toes (or balance in Trikonasana or Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana let's say) that is the thing that makes this practice really worthwhile. And that happens for almost everyone right from the very beginning of their journey.The beautiful thing about ashtanga yoga is that all of us in the Mysore-style room are operating at our limits, from beginners to 'advanced' practitioners. And so we are all having roughly the same experience (I say 'roughly' because we know from our own practice that even we ourselves are not having exactly the same experience of the practice from one day to the next).That's what I love about this practice. You don't have to do it for ten years before you understand the point (although it can take that long and even longer for a lot of us!!). Right from the first vinyasa of the first Surya Namaskara the experience of yoga is available to all of us, regardless of our background.