Picking Your Yoga Teacher

Picking Your Yoga Teacher

A few Things to think about before you starting your practice of yoga

Hatha yoga, the physical branch of one of the eight limbs of traditional yoga, is a magnificent, low-impact aerobic form of physical exercise. But, it has many other benefits as well.

Before you begin a practice of yoga, you need to do a little detective work. 

Begin by talking to yoga teachers in your area. Check out the credentials of the teachers. Is she your best friend’s Aunt Susie who has a small class in her family room? Did he study with a certified teacher? Is she a certified teacher (CYT) or a registered teacher (RYT)? What’s the difference?

A general guideline is this: a certified teacher has spent a month or more living in an ashram, a yoga commune, living the life of a yogi. These means eating vegetarian meals, practicing celibacy, meditating at required intervals each day and embodying traditional yogic philosophy.

During the 1990s, there was a yoga explosion. Everybody, including Jane Fonda, got on the yoga marketing wagon and although many of them didn’t understand yogic philosophy or the true nature of the practice, the videos were sold like hotcakes thus creating a bigger market for teachers.

In an effort to supply the demand, many teachers and ashrams took shortcuts in the certification process. Some respectable ashrams with long histories of traditional teaching began to offer weekend retreats. If you took enough of them, you became certified.

Other athletic organizations created “registered” teacher training. Again, this was often weekend training once a month, or a week crammed full of the basic movements or asanas, a sanskit word meaning postures.

So, it’s important to determine before beginning what it is you want from a yoga routine. If you’re just going for physical exercise, finding an RYT is perfect. If however, you’d like to learn more about the tradition of yoga, you will want to find someone with a deeper understanding of yogic philosophy and lifestyle.

The next thing to do is make sure your doctor O.Ks your practice. Most Western doctors today understand the amazing health benefits of yoga, but always check first.

Pick up an old book on yoga at the second hand store or buy a video produced by someone who’s had a long-standing practice. You’ll find more of the traditions with old timers.

There are many important subtle things that you’ll need to know before beginning such as a menstruating woman should never practice most postures especially any posture in which the feet and legs are above the head. Or if you have high blood pressure, you shouldn’t do any inverted postures – that’s when your head is lower than your upper body such as downward facing dog, shoulder stand or plough.

These are called “contraindications” and do not follow the philosophy of non-violence as they will cause problems to the body. You definitely want your yoga teacher to tell you these things before beginning a posture.

You will want to study the different types of yoga. Although it was created as a meditative form of physical movement, when yoga became popular in the 1990s, a completely new system of yoga, Power Yoga, was created for the Type A personality. This system is fast and competitive, a big no-no in traditional circles.

Do a little homework to discover the philosophy of the creator of the system you think you want to do. Four of the more popular styles are Sivananda, Kripalu, Iyengar and Kundalini. All are similar but different in subtle ways and at least one of those styles will appeal to you.

Be patient, Traditional teachers will repeat often, “In yoga there’s no competition.” “Pain is no gain.” “Pain is a stop sign.”

This is a hard concept for westerners to embrace because we’ve been brought up with the “no pain, no gain” philosophy of life. Remember this is an eastern tradition and it’s the exact opposite of the west.

What this will do for you is allow you to relax enough in a posture to actually gain the full benefits of it. When you’re not busy looking at your neighbor in class and trying to measure up to how beautifully the teacher can do it, you keep your attention on your own body, thus creating what yogis called “body awareness.” The more body awareness you have, the more likely you are to know when to stop.

A good example of “pain is a stop sign,” is to imagine putting your hand on a hot stove. Your first reaction is to move away from the fire as quickly as possible. Why? Because you feel pain. This is a very simple lesson that you can use in other areas of your life. If something feels uncomfortable, if you are in pain, then your body/mind is sending you a physical or emotional message to Stop Doing What You’re Doing. Think of all the times you’ve said to yourself, “ I knew I shouldn’t have done that.” Duh – welcome to what’s called body awareness. You were getting messages from your body or intuition, but didn’t have a framework in which to listen.

So, another point to understand is that yoga will increase your intuition. That is one of the main reasons to have a yoga practice. When those two snakes crawl up your spine, they end up at the top of your head in what yogis call your crown chakra, or pineal gland, the home of High Vision.

What this means to you is that you will become more aware of what is going on and why it’s happening. You’ll begin to understand subtleties that have evaded you in the past. You may even begin to know things like who’s calling on the phone or when you’re gonna get your IRS check or where to shop for a fabulous bargain basement outfit. Increased intuition is a great tool for getting thru life in a simpler and easier way.

If you’ve led a sedentary lifestyle or have not been eating properly, in the beginning you may feel nauseous after a yoga session. Your body is naturally releasing toxins. Know that this is a good sign; you’re on the road to better health.

You may also find that you have to go to the bathroom while in the middle of a session. Again, this is a good sign that your body’s metabolism is working better and you’re eliminating toxins in the most obvious way.

Yogis know, as you will after a regular practice that everything you need to know is inside. As you learn to listen to your body’s wisdom, you’ll know the rite foods to eat, the rite amount of sleep to get and you’ll find that your trips to the doctor’s office decrease. You’ll feel better, look younger. Hell, you may even grow a couple of inches, as the body stretches to it’s full potential.

Good luck and namaste’.