Yoga Is More Than Just Poses: What Most Classes Don't Teach

So today is, um, yoga beyond the studio.

So we're kind of diving into holistic health as a lifestyle here, and let's just dive right in.

And so, like, what really inspired this episode was, like, really thinking about, um, why it is I do what I'm doing and the way that I'm doing it, um, in a lot of the ways that I teach yoga right now, which is online primarily.

I thought that I was going to lose this big, um, part of teaching by not teaching in person when, in fact, I'm ac- I actually found the exact opposite.

I've been able to go so much deeper with people because we are not in studio and because we can take these things as we, um, have time for them and can digest them and take them one step at a time and move through the system as it should be moved through, almost like walking up, going up a ladder.

You know, you can't go from the bottom rung to the top rung without touching the middle rungs.

You know, you need to follow the steps.

You have to follow the path in order for these things to work for you.

And so that was my frustration primarily with working, um, in studios and teaching classes was, like, you had no control of your students.

Like, you, you had no control if people showed up one day or not, or one week or not, or every week or not.

And so you could never really consistently build upon the practice.

You could just do, you know, the, um, you can always build a practice to, like, fit each level, of course, but you could never really, like, dive into further things because sometimes you might have a beginner, so you're gonna start and make things a little bit easier, blah, blah, blah.

Either way, anyway, I, I digress.

Um, so essentially, yoga is not being practiced unless it's being practiced holistically and fully.

And just practing- practicing asana or postures, which is what most yoga classes are in most studios, um, is only practicing one portion of the holistic practice and is really, at that point, if that's the only part of quote unquote "yoga" that you do, it's really just the same as an exercise class or a Zumba class or any sort of, like, aerobics class, a stretching class, um, a workout class.

It's, it's really, it's just that at that point, um, which is fine.

You will get benefits from doing the practices and doing the asanas, but that's not even close to the full benefits that you could be getting if that's the only portion that you're practicing.

And so, um, I really just kinda was, um, stewing on this i- as the fact of, like, it is more of, of, of a mindset and it's an awareness.

You know? It's a mental awareness.

It's a being your own...

Hmm, how do I wanna say this? Basically, like, having your own, um, soul watching from a separated place of your ego and operating from a soul level place and not a le- a ego level place.

And so if you could think of it like we have our body, and then within our body is our soul, and our body is very, like, um, material and 3D, like you can touch it.

Our soul, um, is kind of like- Less touchy.

[laughs] It's more of like a vapor or like a light.

Light is a better way to think of it.