We’ve all been there; the teacher starts cueing and you know where they’re going and you don’t like it. You don’t feel up to the pose they are suggesting but it seems like everyone is going straight into the pose. Your bones creak, your muscles shake, and you take the pose the teacher said…. You can’t breathe, you can’t relax every second feels like an hour.
When I see a student take child’s pose instead of an extra vinyasa I smile
Here is something that is going to revolutionise your practice. Yoga teachers like seeing students miss out poses or take the gentler variation because it means you are listening to your body.
Obviously, you shouldn’t always miss out the same poses over and over (unless you have a physical injury) just because you don’t like it. But you should miss out a pose if you are feeling tired. If it doesn’t sit right with your body that day then miss it out!
Yoga is all about listening to your body; it is about tuning in to the body and nurturing it with energy and relaxation. Some days taking that extra vinyasa will feel like the perfect thing for your body, some days you might just want to sit in child’s pose. Yoga is about you, not anyone else in the room or even the teacher standing at the front. It is about you.
If you force yourself into poses that feel too deep, too energetic or just not right for you that day, then you run the risk of giving yourself an injury.
So next time you hear a cue and you think to yourself ‘please not today’…..the don’t do it. Your teacher will clock you haven’t taken the pose and may give you an alternative or may just let you sit with the pose that feels better for you. You may feel slightly strange skipping something you have been ‘told’ to do, but we as your teachers are not here to force you into anything, we are here to guide you and give you suggestions, and of course to keep your body safe.
When I see a student take child’s pose instead of an extra vinyasa, I smile, even if they don’t see it, I’m smiling on the inside, because they get it. They understand that listening to their body is the most important thing in yoga.
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