Feel Your Yoga

I read this post today on feeling vs thinking in Yoga and I thought "Yes! This is what I've felt but haven't found the words for."

As a Yoga teacher, I provide the verbal cues to guide my students in Yoga (opening across the chest, tipping the pelvis, etc). But what I really want them to do is to feel the Yoga.

The cues are important. It's good to know the alignment points and it's good to know what type of stretch you are targeting. But it's also really important to see what feels right for you.

This is how I progressed in Yoga over the past decade. Part of it came from having a larger body and not being able to do the conventional poses in all cases. But I experimented: slowly, gently, compassionately. What happens if I take my shoulder back a bit? What happens if I roll my hip forward a fraction?

I teach a lot of modifications for my students, and most of them were a matter of trial and error. I encourage you to do some experimenting of your own. That's how you find the Yoga teacher inside you.