Advice for all

"I can't stretch like I used to when I was young" - "I am overweight" - "I am not sure if Yoga is really for me" - "There are so many different types - which one is the best to study ?"

Any of this sound familiar ?

Here is some general advice if you are:-

1. Thinking of getting into Yoga for the first time
2. If you are already tired of Yoga, or you are having doubts about carrying on or
3. You have been practicing Yoga for years and are thinking of being an instructor

I am not sure about Yoga

Maybe you a you are actually thinking more about YogaTherapy ?

If not then great - read on - doubt and ignorance can still be your friends and your spiritual guides on one of the most powerful and transformative styles of Yoga that is: Yoga for yourself !

Why not read some books - join some internet groups - try it at home - talk to people - all this is free. There is Yoga out there for you somewhere too - you just need to discover it for yourself ! But don't get caught up in YogaClassConsciousness

I have been doing it for years now and I am getting fed up with Yoga

You are not alone ! There is only so much of the Yoga we think we know that a human being can take...

But maybe you have not really been doing Yoga - maybe you have been doing YogaTherapy ?

The Dominator Culture is a theory by Riane_Eisler that we have lived under a domination-culture paradigm for about 8,000 years - coincidently that is around about the time Yoga is thought to have been first practiced - but who really knows ?

ANYWAY - the traditional "domination culture" can easily be identified in a Yoga class, tradition or schools that:-

• Peddle YogaClassConsciousness - who's "right" and who's "wrong" (e.g., this Yoga is more authentic - more rigourous - whatever...)
• Teach students how to follow instructions obediently - here, simple expertise can soon change into authority
• Dispense labels, evaluations, diagnoses, and moralistic judgements (e.g., Special Needs, Emotionally Disturbed, Culturally Disadvantaged, Hyperactive, ADD, etc.)
• Motivate desired behavior through subtle methods of reward, guilt, shame, duty, or obligation.

Our spiritual, personal, political and social aims for Yoga should really be:-

• Make life more wonderful
• Get everyone's needs met (but not to the detriment of others)
• Connect with self and others
• Motivate through the joy of natural giving, i.e., contributing to the well-being of others
• Learn how to receive freely from others

Heavily borrowed and adapted for Yoga from Marshall Rosenbergs "Non-Violent Communication" (NVC) process

Thinking about setting up as a Yoga teacher yourself ?

Maybe you a you are actually thinking more about YogaTherapy ?

If not - great - but a word of warning... if your particular approach is base on the YogaClassConsciousness - or solely on criticising or reacting to someone elses then you probably need to wait a few more years before you start trying to teach anyone about Yoga - however good your intentions might be !!

"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring¹: 
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."

Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) in An Essay on Criticism, 1709 ¹Pierian spring

I like this topic - I have some advice for people too...

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-- WikiAdmin - 10 Sep 2009