An inquiry from an old student got me thinking today about why people come along to do yoga. Or, I guess, even why people teach yoga.
Is it to get a workout and build stronger, more sinewy bodies? Or is it to fix up bodies broken by disease or injuries, and minds run over by stress?
It’s pertinent to hang out with the questions as I head off to teach in a yoga therapy course. Trainees will learn to take case histories, do client assessments, and design programs. Clients from the Byron area will be consulting with their trainee yoga therapists in three sessions over the duration of the 10 day course.
The way I conceive of yoga, I do physical postures, but it’s not ultimately to develop a better body or as a curative. (Although I have done and still do my practice for those reasons sometimes.) If I can describe what I do…it’s like I perform an outward expression of a pose, but there’s an inward fine tuning going on that’s moderated by breathing and mind connections. There are layers: one is Ego that is interested in my looking good, two is the Mind with it’s various fears and distractions, and then there’s Intelligence that sifts through all the crap and has me get present to the task at hand.
In yoga, the sages tell us the task is enlightenment, which is a universe away from the gym or the hospital. How do I convey that in a yoga therapy course?