THE TYPE OF YOGA I TEACH

Some people ask me what style of yoga I teach and some of them even think that as a yoga teacher, I can teach advanced poses like arm balance, headstand, etc.

Well, those advanced poses are great and can give benefits. However, it does not in line with my WHY, my reason of why I want to guide others with yoga. When a potential client would like to make appointment for a yoga session, I would always ask first; "How is your experience with yoga?", "What is your intention in doing yoga?" If later on we found out, that we have different expectations then the session would not happen. I don't want to say "Yes" to what I cannot deliver and also to avoid disappointment on the client's side. In my opinion, being true, honest, and authentic are very important as a yoga teacher. My yoga teacher once told me to teach what I know.
Now getting back to the point of why I want to get involved in yoga; Yoga can improve the quality of life of a person. Yoga can be done by all ages; from kids to older adults, and with all body types; including whether the body is stiff or flexible. It does not matter. The focus in my class is about AWARENESS. Awareness of the breath with bodily sensations, mind and emotions. Most of us cannot relax if we have to meditate in sitting position. That is why moving meditation like yoga will be a great activity to open up blockage of energy before we do sitting meditation. Our focus changes from busy thoughts to how we move. Sometimes we neglect certain body parts and take it for granted. We force our body to do what we want it to do. We forget to be gentle with our body. This is the reason why I want to teach yoga; to bring our attention back to the body using the breath through simple and gentle movements which is not all will be yoga. I combine it with all practices that I know like qigong which is to feel the energy in our body and embodied movement to open up the joints. Some of us say that we have stiff hips or shoulders, etc. On that note, have we done simple things like opening up the joints to improve flexibility or we push our body to work harder that will make us look good on the outside? This is a question to be reflected within ourselves.

The picture that is shown here is "Legs-up-the-wall pose". I believe anyone can do this very simple pose and there are so many benefits we can get from this pose; the blood flows from the legs back to the head, we help our digestive system to work optimally by doing belly breathing, we return our attention to the body instead of the mind, and many more. Therefore, yoga is about conquering our ego which means forcing and pushing to be "correct" in a pose. There is no right and wrong in yoga. It is about experiencing the journey to know our body better with the help of a teacher or guide if we practice in a class. The more relax our breath is, the more relax our body is and the clearer our mind is.

This is my belief in teaching yoga. Anyone deserves the best to improve their quality of life and it all starts from within. Once we understand what yoga means to us, it will all return to things that are beyond physical matters.