This class is designed to emphasize the most important aspect of physical yoga: stability. Many, including yoga instructors, seem to think that flexibility is the most important aspect of yoga poses, however, without stability, flexibility leads to improper alignment and safety issues. When yoga poses are not safe we are no longer practicing yoga but exercising our ego to go "deeper". We see a lot of this in physical yoga.
We build stability first with the breath, establishing a rhythm for the class. Because breath is so intricately related to the mind, we also build a stable mind. With both of these the body can also be stable, safe and able to excel in yoga and transformation.
In life if we don't have stability things get messy. It is the same in the yoga context. Don't let all the pretty poses done by uber-flexible people misrepresent yoga. Know that working at your own level and pace, and focusing on building stability in your practice, will see you reaping the fruits of your practice sooner.
Loren Crawford is Canada's first ParaYoga certified teacher.
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