The 3 Stages of Yoga Poses

A yoga pose can be divvied up into three stages:

• the going into yoga pose
  
• the being in the yoga pose
• and the coming out of the yoga pose
  

Depending on your personality (or patterns), you might be good at all three of them. My personality appears to be focusing on the first half of the three stages: I am usually enthusiastic, among the first ones in the pose, but I am also among the first ones who lose interest and come out of the pose in the fastest way possible, which often feels more like a sloppy dance move, if not a falling-over, than a mindful yoga movement.

And in real life, that's true too. 100% Enthusiasm. Not-so-many % Follow-Through.

Here is another New Year's resolution:
In my next yoga pose, I will make sure that I put as much awareness into the coming-out as the coming in. It can't be too difficult.

acarya

Today was week 7 of teaching a lunch-hour Iyengar beginner class at work. On average I introduce 1 or 2 new poses each week. Especially in the beginning, repetition is a great learning tool. I think too many new poses would just confuse the beginning student. At the same time, I work towards 1 or 2 more challenging poses, to keep the students interested. Ardha Chandrasana or Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III) are good challenging poses for beginners.

"The acarya (teacher) gives you one quarter, one quarter comes from your fellow students, one quarter comes from your own intelligence and one quarter comes from the passage of time."

Manu

(From the book Yoga Touchstone by Norman Sjoman)

Awareness & Knowledge

...People are more aware of what yoga is now. You don't need to educate people as much. People know it's not something exotic like sitting on a bed of nails. It's a deep practice of self-awareness and self-knowledge that also connects you to those around you in a way that is beneficial to everyone....

Judith Hanson Lasater

Yoga Studio

What should a yoga studio be like?

According to the Yoga Pradipika, "...the Yogi should practice Hatha Yoga in a small room, situated in a solitary place, being 4 cubits square, and free from stones, fire, water, disturbances of all kinds, and in a country where justice is properly administered, where good people live, and food can be obtained easily and plentifully..."

I think my place in Canada probably meets this description - not quite sure how big 4 cubit square are, but people are good and food is plentiful!