We learn so much from our students
We learn so much from our students. It's kind of a cliché really, and it's something that you can imagine a yoga teacher saying in a cheesy Instagram post, but it really is true.
Before you teach, you experience yoga practice through the filter of your own body and mind, and your teacher's instructions. Every nuance of the yoga postures, breathing, bandhas, focus, emotional reactions, intellectual reactions, desires, achievements etc. come from one individual's experience, your own.
When you start teaching you slowly realise that every individual yoga student is experiencing the practice in their own way. Of course, there are broadly similar categories of experience for many different people but, ultimately, the overall experience of one student is truly unique to that student.
And so, as teachers, we get to experience the practice by proxy, through the lens of many different individuals and their responses. This, in turn, serves to influence our own approach to practice and we might even - if we're lucky and we're really paying attention - be able to recognise some limiting factors in our own approach to practice through working with our students.
One of the biggest lessons one learns as a teacher is that everyone is unique. No two physical bodies are the same, no two minds are the same, no two people's histories are the same, and no two approaches to practice are the same.
What is the same for everyone, though, is that whatever form of 'success' in yoga that a student wishes to achieve, is only achieved through regular, uninterrupted practice over a long period of time (Pantanjali says exactly this in the Yoga Sutras - chapter 1, verse 14 - for those of you who want to check).
This means that there are no shortcuts. If you want to perfect a certain yoga posture that you find challenging you must practise it for a long time. If you want to regulate your breathing you must practise doing that for a long time. If you want to allow your mind to be a little bit quieter you must practise for a long time. Also, you should be mindful that if you stop practising for a few weeks or months, progress towards your goal will slide backwards.
Pantanjali also adds another prerequisite to success in yoga though; that you should approach your practice with an attitude of satkara (positivity, reverence, respect, sincerity, or devotion).
Don't try to circumvent the work required to establish a strong yoga practice; be prepared to work hard towards your goal. Don't keep asking your teacher if they'll teach you the next posture; have respect for the long process of unfolding in the ashtanga yoga sequence. Don't expect to be calm in all situations just because you practise yoga; realise that all we're really doing is working on our own responses to the world and that we'll most likely never be the finished product.
Yes, celebrate small improvements in asanas, in being able to have some control over your responses to things, or in experiencing some fleeting glimpses of pure steadiness of mind, but remember that all of these things are simply signs that you've been practising regularly, for a long time, and with a positive attitude.
The hardest thing in ashtanga yoga is not achieving advanced postures. Everyone who practises consistently, for a long time, will eventually achieve their ultimate potential in yoga postures (bearing in mind that this will be different for each individual).
The hardest thing in ashtanga yoga is to keep practising. That's the only thing that's required.
Here are my rules for ashtanga yoga practice!
Keep going.
Don't stop.
Nobody cares what postures you can or can't do.
Nobody cares if you haven't practised for ages, they'll all be absolutely delighted to see you again if and when you return.
Try not to injure yourself.
And enjoy the experience.
Happy practising.