A former longtime student recently told me that she had to stop coming to yoga classes because she just couldn\u2019t make herself sit out poses that were bothering her back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My class culture is anything but competitive. I encourage people to abstain when a pose doesn\u2019t feel right. I constantly tell my students to listen to their body and that yoga is not a competition. Yoga is about connecting with your body and your breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s completely fine with me if a student does his\/her own practice in my classes. But this particular student realises that it is her nature to want to do everything. Like so many of us, the goal of developing \u201cadvanced yoga practice\u201d is a deeply held, almost intractable concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An active biker, skier and rock climber, she\u2019s up for pretty much any physical challenge. This made it difficult for her to refuse yoga poses that she knew were hurting her. She\u2019s since spent a few years developing a slowed-down home practice that works for her. I\u2019m glad she\u2019s found her way into a satisfying home practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This particular student is not alone ignoring her body\u2019s signals and forging ahead with poses that aren\u2019t appropriate. Especially early in practice, this must-do-everything attitude is quite common. In the West, we\u2019re products of a competitive culture. Most of us bring that attitude to yoga, at least at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But sitting out a pose is lame, right? Well, maybe not. Actually I call opting out of poses, or modifying to suit your body\u2019s current needs, \u201cadvanced yoga practice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advanced Yoga Practice is All About Integrity<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Developing awareness and wisdom are the main aims of yoga practice. Sitting out and\/or modifying shows a level of awareness and wisdom not usually available to beginners. All of us in the yoga world are painfully aware of the many famous teachers who can perform amazing physical feats of \u201cadvanced\u201d asanas, but who have not behaved admirably towards their students. I certainly don't want my headstone to say, \u201cShe did amazing backbends.\u201d I want to be remembered for my kindness, wisdom and truthfulness. That\u2019s the point of yoga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when I see a longtime student head to the wall for Vrksasana (Tree Pose), pull up a stack of yoga blankets to sit on in a seated forward bend or rest their bottom hand on a yoga block in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), I think, \u201cthat\u2019s progress!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That student has learned that the point of all this practice is not to look a certain way in a pose. Rather, it\u2019s to develop the awareness to know when your body is aligned in integrity and when it isn\u2019t. Recognising asana\u2019s ability to teach us about integrity is far more important than its ability to lead us into fancy poses. Modifying your poses is an act of wisdom and compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when my former student told me about her reason for taking a hiatus, I was happy. Of course I\u2019ve missed having her in class. But I\u2019m happy that during her decade-long yoga journey she developed the self-awareness to know she was not able to keep herself safe in a class setting. I\u2019m happy that she has the experience to build a home practice that has helped her heal. And I\u2019m happiest that she\u2019s become wiser and more compassionate with herself along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what an Advanced Yoga Practice truly is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Namaste<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former longtime student recently told me that she had to stop coming to yoga classes because she just couldn\u2019t make herself sit out poses that were bothering her back. My class culture is anything but competitive. I encourage people to abstain when a pose doesn\u2019t feel right. I constantly tell my students to listen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"What is Advanced Yoga Practice?","_seopress_titles_desc":"Developing awareness and wisdom are the main aims of yoga practice. ","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"advacned yoga practice,advanced yoga,advanced yoga poses,advanced yoga classes near me,advanced yoga poses chart,advanced yoga practices,advanced yoga sequence,advanced yoga classes,advanced yoga flow","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[{"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_type":"articles","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_type":"Article","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_title":"What is Advanced Yoga Practice?","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_desc":"Advanced Yoga Practice is All About Integrity Developing awareness and wisdom are the main aims of yoga practice. Sitting out and\/or modifying shows a level of awareness and wisdom not usually available to beginners. All of us in the yoga world are painfully aware of the many famous teachers who can perform amazing physical feats of \u201cadvanced\u201d asanas, but who have not behaved admirably towards their students. I certainly don't want my headstone to say, \u201cShe did amazing backbends.\u201d I want to be remembered for my kindness, wisdom and truthfulness. That\u2019s the point of yoga.","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_author":"Christel Thimont","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_img":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/rsw_1280-9.webp","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_img_width":"1280","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_img_height":"1172","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_coverage_start_date":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_coverage_start_time":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_coverage_end_date":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_coverage_end_time":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_article_speakable_css_selector":""}],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[90,102,37],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yoga","tag-advanced","tag-practice","tag-yoga"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christelwellness.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}