Monday, September 23, 2013

Yoga Spirituality?

I have many conversations with people as I travel around teaching classes. Sometimes the topic of spirituality comes up. These are always interesting moments as  people speak about their beliefs and practices. Everybody  has convictions and ideas about the yoga path. Who's to say that what they believe is right or wrong?  I don't know. People often look to a yoga teacher as somebody who may have some spiritual insight and can be rather disappointed when a teacher turns out to be quite a regular kind of person. I can say with honesty to being a person on a deep spiritual path but also a person full of all sorts of idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies, just another trying to figure out the mysteries of life. It does make me wonder what is my spiritual practice in yoga and what are my convictions for such a path. Honestly, I am not religious whatsoever although having had some periods in my younger years when I involved myself in the established means of the spiritual life such as through synagogues and churches. This didn't work for me and turned to something more physical practices eventually ending up in the world of yoga.   Within yoga, there are a lot of ways to access spiritual questions and for my part I tend to remain on the fringes of such inquiries.  Sure, I have my own beliefs which are very few in number believing more in the unique path that every person is on. I tend to make my classes about the physical practice with a dose of mindfulness thrown in to help my students in the now.  If really pressed I would have to say that my yoga spirituality is about the asanas and the suggestions they bring along with them in how to move live and be.  Come and explore a class of mine to find out what this means for yourself.  


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