harmony in your practice

when a choir sings we hear, hopefully, it sing in harmony. we'll hear different notes, but in harmony. also there is different voice characters that harmonise.

that's exactly the harmony we need in our life. in a family, not everyone will "sing" the same note, but to make it work, all needs to be in harmony. same to all the other different aspects in our life AND our yoga practice.

I bet you've all been to yoga classes where you walk out after and you, your body, did not feel at harmony. not at all what we want and also expect, especially from a yoga class. THE trend that brings balance and harmony to your body and life.

well. the more I started to practice the pickier I got. now I know why in all my trainings (and luckily also all my teachers so far) the focus was on establishing a home practice. as in the end there is only one person who knows best what you need - YOU!

now let me explain.

you start the yoga path of Asanas and can pretty much go to any class. sure, the teacher needs to be your "cup of tea" (yes, very important) and you need to like the whole atmosphere of the studio, settings...you're getting to know all the different postures and then hopefully, after going to practice regularly, slowly feel what harmonises with you and your body or not.

that's when not every class you go to will be great anymore. not because the teacher isn't good or the sequencing was "wrong". no, simply because it wasn't the right thing for you at that time.

because of the above mentioned, the 12 basic postures, Swami Sivananda put together, make sense to me. especially in the beginning of your Asana practice there is not much more you need. most important to me is that my students remember this basic postures and take them home. make them theirs and practice fully focused on their breath, because they don't have to think about the postures anymore.

when I need to bring back harmony because my body is off or my surroundings ask a lot of me, I go back to exactly this 12 "basic" postures (not all of them so basic in the end).

I teach this 12 basic postures to my students to give them something they can take home. a safe base, that's always there.

of course I do also love the circus!

all the variations, the endless number of postures and craziness that, no matter how flexible and open your body gets, always have room for another step to add.

we shouldn't let this circus disturb our harmony. yes, there is postures that look extremely good and cool and sure I do want to be able to master them, have my picture taken and show you all :-)

more important though - my harmony. or, put differently, to practice Asanas without the ego. well, well, that is hard. and it's as hard for me as it is for you.

so let's realise it and whenever we catch ourselves letting the ego take over, come back to the basic 12 postures. focus. breathe. don't want. let it come.