Tips for Getting the Most Out of a Yoga Class

November 29, 7:45 PMPhiladelphia Yoga ExaminerJonathan Bartlett

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Philadelphia Yoga Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Yoga students connect to the teacher's yoga experience. 

I love being a yoga student. I love being a yoga teacher. 

            As a yoga teacher, I have the privilege of bringing my yoga experience, everything I’ve done inside and outside of yoga to my students. To each class, I expose stuff I’ve learned about yoga: I put me out there, both physically and metaphysically. It’s part performance art and part kabuki, but all yoga. Each class, I get better, imparting to my students what I know, more efficiently and clearly. I am grateful to them for letting me use them for self-expression and self-improvement.

            But as a yoga student, I am there for the yoga experience, and so should you. Like I’ve said before, and will again, yoga is not exercise. It will strengthen your body. It will make your body more flexible and easy to use outside of class and practice. It might even promote development of a washboard stomach or a nice ass, but the real benefit of yoga is that which comes from the mind/body connection, in conjunction with the breathing. Here are some tips to help you leave a yoga class feeling like a ‘million bucks.’

1. Breathe! There are more than a few yoga folks who say that the asanas, the yoga poses we do in class, are merely an excuse for the exercise of pranayama, the infusion of breath-energy that goes on during a yoga practice. Before and during class, most yoga teachers will stress the importance of performing the asanas in conjunction with the proper sequence of inhalation and exhalation. As you do, breathe deeply and fully, from your belly to your throat. It will not only help you as you perform the asanas, but you will leave the studio feeling more powerful and more aware, like you could start the day all over again.
2. No judgment. All teachers are different; styles are different, the yoga studios you visit might offer an altered form of the style of yoga that you are used to. The best tact to take is to let your body be the judge as you practice. Feel what’s going on inside of you. Take this hour, hour and a half, and suspend the judgment that comes from your mind. This time is for your body. Just for this short period, keep your mind out of it. After the practice is over then you let your mind wander back and doodle around what you did and make assessments
3. Surrender and connect. Surrendering is a very powerful and very liberating experience. It’s easy for some, hard for others. As you take instruction from your teacher, you surrender to his or her yoga experience. All teachers are different, even those that practice a more regimented style of yoga, such as Ashtanga or Bikram, will bring their personal style to the show. Take it all in, connect with him or her. For me, a yoga class is a very intimate experience, because I’m connecting with the the yoga teacher, with his/her experience with yoga.