Yoga Pedagogy: Practice with heart

  • 2014
Table of contents hide 1 Internal fire 2 Yoga Pedagogy 2: Student difficulties 2.1 What are the obstacles that yoga students go through? Knowing them beforehand will help us a lot, whether we are teachers or students. Writes Julián Peragón (Arjuna). 2.2 Insecurity 2.3 Lack of listening 2.4 Competitiveness 2.5 Impatience 2.6 Physical discomfort 2.7 Boredom 2.8 Lack of practice 2.9 Instability 2.10 Difficulties with limits 2.10.1 2.10.2 Who is 3 Yoga Pedagogy: Practice with heart

All the deployment of techniques and methods, all the wisdom of ancient traditions would not make sense unless there was a practice space where to "realize" the proposed objectives. One can master the proposed techniques even reaching virtuosity, but that does not ensure that our discipline has a soul. Juan Peragón (Arjuna) writes.

It is true that the disciplines of one sign or another remind us, perhaps because of our school education, a sense of duty, a strong position, sometimes somewhat rigid. And the truth is that we have rebelled about it so many times.

When parting from outside, when practice becomes a duty, an external or internal requirement, it loses strength. It will be impossible to overcome the quagmire of the road because deep down one is divided, there is a practice but it is not yet "our" practice.

One can master the proposed techniques even reaching virtuosity but that does not ensure that our discipline has a soul. On the other hand, if we were clear that we are a seed full of potential we would try through the earth and the humidity, the sun and the air to become that tree that we are.

We would be grateful if we felt that curiosity to discover what of our infinite possibilities can be displayed. In that deployment life puts a little and we do the same because on the other side of our impulse we certainly discover a resistance. That resistance is what we have to talk about. Of the obstacles we encounter along the way.

Patañjali (2nd century) masterfully lists nine obstacles that range from lack of perseverance to doubt, from excessive complacency to fatigue, laziness or illness, among others. Obstacles that surely all of us have known in our meats.

It is true that the cultivation of the will helps us to go over excuses and setbacks. The will tells us "my roots are strong and any storm of life situations will not move me from the direction taken." Now, basing the practice only on the will makes us strong but rigid, solid but heavy.

Internal fire

The will opens the doors but then it is the passion that should do the job. The key is to deeply understand what you are doing to the point of loving it with all your heart. And there is no force as penetrating as love for what one does. But, of course, love is learned by loving and love is something different from the will, it cannot be forced or programmed. We could say that in part all our strategies in practice are a way to create adequate conditions for that passion to ignite.

This passion is marked in the tradition of Yoga as tapas, internal heat, intense energy that awakens as a result of an asceticism. It is that well-directed internal heat that will purify and unlock possible obstacles. It can be said that we need extra energy to start a long path of transformation. By continuing with the image of the seed, a greenhouse will create heat conditions, among other things, where the seed will grow strongly.

Actually, the path we started has a precipice on each side of the path, so you have to walk safely and carefully. On one side we have the meander of our circumstances, the complexity of social demand, the frantic pace of modernity. A rhythm that leaves us no time for quiet and silent practice, a job that forces us to be competitive and produce to the fullest, a bureaucracy that borders on the absurd and a multiple relational world but, simultaneously, very fragile.

On the other side, the labyrinth of internal inertia. On these Patañjali yogasutra list five impediments that are worth noting. The ignorance that prevents us from knowing reality properly; the arrogant ego that brings us confusion of values; the excessive desire that goes in search of an illusory happiness; the irrational aversions that limit us until we let ourselves live; and the insecurities to the new and unknown that populate our inner world of suspicions that are nothing more than a fear of death.

Let no one be deceived, tradition clearly marks a long and difficult path. The obstacles are clearly defined. To succeed, our discipline has to move towards a solid practice over time, with constancy, without interruptions, with a positive attitude, with passion, and that is intelligent to overcome obstacles in the best way. Qualities of the practice that are common sense since we all understand, to give another example, that a good musician is done by regular practice and a huge dedication to his passion. Among all we would highlight something that sometimes goes unnoticed, and that practice has to be intelligent, just as a ship has to have a route drawn if we want to reach a good port.

Objectives of the soul

That intelligence the first thing that discriminates is that the practice is not life but the possibility of living it with more intensity. Let's not make an irreparable substitution. Then you have to look for desirable objectives, and again you will have to differentiate between objectives that meet the expectations of an ego that wants, for example, to have more power, more control or feel superior, from those other objectives that it demands the inner life as they can be: strengthening of our health mechanisms, greater capacity for centering or an ever-closer connection with the totality that surrounds and sustains us. If the goals are of the soul, there will be true nutrition.

We often forget to raise our practice from deep listening. What do I need right now? What do I need, for example, to tone, relax or relax? What should I focus, guide, understand? What means do I have for it, how much energy do I have, if my circumstances are adequate for this now? We must go progressively towards our objectives, in the same way that a climber does, in stages. Taking into account the weather, studying the face of the mountain through which it is intended to reach the summit. That is, measuring efforts without forgetting a fundamental element, detachment .

It is possible that despite the effort, following the previous example, we will have to return to the base camp. And it is that in our practice not everything depends on us. We are not a perfect gear mechanism. In the mystery in which we unfold, grace descends or does not depend on you. The practice is a support but it is not a secure ticket. The only thing we can do is to feel that we have done a good job and that this work was done wholeheartedly, from listening, unpretentious, encouraged by what life demands, by the deployment of our potential. And in the end, what can be said, it is not our will but another will that decides.

Yoga Pedagogy 2: Student Difficulties

What are the obstacles that yoga students go through? Knowing them beforehand will help us a lot, whether we are teachers or students. Writes Juli n Perag n (Arjuna).

We yoga teachers have a function of teaching yoga to our students and accompanying them in their learning process. Although the process is unique in each person, there are some obstacles that are common in the vast majority. The technique we teach is a vehicle of something greater, we could say that we put into play our health, our capacity for understanding and also our inner serenity. After so many years of teaching, I can ensure that the learning process is delicate and goes through many phases. Briefly knowing some of the obstacles that our students go through will allow us to anticipate possible frustration and provide means to get out of the maze.

Insecurity

When a new activity begins, it is very likely that the person will enter with a large dose of insecurity: what clothes do I have to wear? How should my relationship with the teachers be? What should I do? Can I ask if I have doubts? ?, etc. In part this is solved if there is a previous interview where the type of yoga we are going to do is explained and what the practice consists of. It is very important to make him see that yoga is for everyone and that the only thing that is not necessary to do is overexertion. The instability of the posture, shortened breathing and lack of attention will be the symptoms that indicate that it is best to undo or go towards a simpler variant.

Lack of listening

Listening is a whole world and requires a crop that our education has often not facilitated. Realizing where our tensions are or what our limitations are indicates that we must be prudent when addressing certain slightly more complicated positions that are not easily achieved at the beginning of the practice. Teachers must constantly give listening guidelines so that everyone pays attention to their limits and stops to feel them and loosen the tensions that exist.

Competitiveness

We live in a competitive society and we have learned that we must fight to be “up”, to feel good and be recognized. Everyone knows that yoga is not a sport but, even so, there are attitudes that slip into our practice. We do not want to be "less", show our weakness, our difficulty and we will do the "bridge" if necessary to do what everyone does, to respond to the pattern we are asked. Here the function of the teacher will be to demystify an excessively physical, complicated or acrobatic yoga . It is also important not to position yourself as a model, remembering that yoga is an attitude of presence, focus and acceptance of who we are.

Impatience

The road is long, the tensions accumulated over decades do not vanish by doing a dozen postures every week. It is true that in the beginning one perceives, in contrast, a great improvement, a more relaxed body and a clearer mind, but tensions persist, our harmful habits overlap, our vital problems continue to harass us.

It is possible that after a short period of practice the student loses illusion and quits the practice of yoga. Here it is important not to promise the gold and the Moor and not to enter the curalotodo yoga so frequent in the spiritual market. Common sense will take us by the hand, it will tell us that one gathers what one sows and that the results depend on our motivation and the intensity of the practice, among other factors. Any farmer knows that between sowing and reaping, hard work and patience are needed.

Physical discomfort

Yoga is a purification in body and soul, what we do all the time is to remove obstacles, loosen tensions, balance the body, cultivate attention. All this will produce, less badly, an internal, corporal, energetic, emotional and mental movement, and logically old tensions will emerge that want to be released. The student who starts can confuse this purification process that can be unpleasant at some point with the superficial idea that "yoga is not going well for me". And it may be that the discomfort has to do with an inadequate way of performing the exercises but, often, what happens is that old pains arouse and old resistance.

It would not be bad to advise the student in this situation a complementation with natural medicine and osteopathy to facilitate this purification process, as well as follow a natural and energetic diet.

Boredom

It may happen that, after a short period of practice, the student loses interest. We are used in our society to change, to the succession of fashions, to renewal above all and we are not able to persist in one thing for a while. Tradition tells us that if one digs a hole here and another there, when he has found hard ground, he can never reach the streak of water.

The fashion of yoga, like everything else, has been cyclical and the person is also exposed to a hundred methods and practices to which one more attractive. As teachers we must be equanimous before the fluctuations of our students, there is no other truth than stable and lasting practice to achieve desirable results.

Lack of practice

It is true, the person who comes to class is often overwhelmed by a hard, stressed and complex life and does not want to hear about philosophies of change. He wants to relax and stretch in a yoga class and have a few moments of peace.

This is, of course, respectable, but it does not hurt to reformulate our profession. We are professionals of an ancient science and we help others, but we are in the position to teach yoga. If yoga is not learned, there will be no real changes. The therapeutic part of yoga is important and even necessary in the first moments, but it is not the heart of yoga. We must invite without any burden to our students to do a practice, small, modest, if you want, at home. Proposing simple exercises, adaptable series, bearable techniques with everyday life.

Instability

We seek to do yoga because our life is plunging into a sea of ​​stress but, interestingly, that same stress and the complexity that surrounds it often prevents us from attending classes regularly. Today because the meeting has become too long, tomorrow because I have to go to my children's school, the day after tomorrow because I forgot the clothes to do yoga at home. We do not realize that this yoga space is for us and we must put it in a very high hierarchy so that circumstances do not tamp it: if not, the attempt will have been in vain.

Teachers should invite perseverance and try to develop in our students a spirit of curiosity that keeps them passionate.

Difficulties with limits

We already know that yoga is the balance between body and mind, between effort and abandonment. Novice students often sin cowardice in front of the practice. Fear of hurting, fear of falling backwards when we do an inverted position, fear of intensifying because the stretching is too intense. On the contrary, more advanced students sometimes sin of daredevils. Desire to do the inverted posture even if it is not yet dominated, seek intensity without hearing it previously. Each of these attitudes will lead us, in one case to a lack of progression, and in the other to great possibilities of injury.

It must be said that beyond the fact of whether a student is novice or advanced, his character counts. There are intense people who almost always seek to go beyond the limit, and others who are excessively prudent and are frightened by the intensity of a practice. Teachers must remind each one of the essentials, sometimes you have to soften, sometimes intensify.

Who

Julián Peragón, Arjuna, teacher teacher, directs the Yoga Síntesis school in Barcelona

Yoga Synthesis

Yoga Pedagogy: Practice with heart

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