Your yoga teacher has car trouble.

Your yoga teacher has kids.

Your yoga teacher has good days and bad.

Your yoga teacher skips practice sometimes.

Your yoga teacher forgets what leg you are on.

Your yoga teacher goes to the grocery store.

In the age of Yoga Journal and other publications which glorify flashy poses, it is easy to think yoga teachers come fully formed out of the womb in scorpion pose (Vrschikasana). What these magazines and even the honored position of teacher at the front of the room don’t show, are the years of practice it took to get to a pose.

Each teacher, no matter how advanced or fresh off the YTT farm, started at square one for their body. They each had a first time on the mat in which they no doubt thought there was no way their body would ever do x, y and z. We all found our way to yoga through a different avenue but make no mistake, once we found the road, we too had to practice and still do. We each have our difficult, easy and trigger poses. We struggle with tightness in our body, unusual shape, short arms and the like, but we practice. (Since we’re sharing, Utkatasana (chair pose) is one of mine.) No one of us is above or separate from practice. Practice is all we have, there is no finish line.

There’s no finish line but over time yoga will greatly affect your body and your practice will change you from the inside out. I once traveled in Peru with a yoga group that included an orthopedic surgeon. He was not a yoga practitioner; he was merely along with his wife who was an avid yogi. I asked him if he had ever tried yoga and he said no but that he was a believer in it. I of course asked him to elaborate. He launched into an incredible story about a 90 year old patient he once had. This 90 year old woman was having some kind of surgery and as they began they were shocked by what they found in her body; muscles that looked like those of a 17 year old. Still in shock from the unusual state of this woman’s body, the surgeon spoke to the family after the fact and asked “What does your mother do?!” The family, taken aback by the interest in their mother’s daily habits, said “Oh nothing really, she’s not that active.” Then another family member piped up and said, “I think she’s been doing yoga for a while.” It turns out this spry 90 year old had been practicing yoga for more than 40 years. It had literally changed her from the inside out!

Downdog a day keeps the doctor away! (13 years in the making downdog)

What is practice? The great thing about yoga is that it is different for everyone and it’s still “right”. Yes we have a format that we use in class that works for most people but that doesn’t mean it’s the only way. If the best way for you to connect your breath with movement and connect to yourself is simply standing in mountain pose for 10 minutes, then that is your practice and that is perfect. Your personal practice, your home practice, and your studio practice can look completely different from each other and that is ok. What is important is that you are doing a practice that works for you. I’ve been speaking mostly about asana (postures) practice here but this applies to meditation as well. If your practice is sitting, standing, walking, eyes open, eyes closed, for 5 minutes, or for 30, the important part is that you actually do it, that you take the time to commit to your practice and be kind to yourself if you miss a day or two or ten.

I say this to remind everyone that we are all the same, we are people, and we are human. I see the separation that happens in class, when students say “I’ll never be able to do that”, or “I can’t do that like you”, or some other form of comparing their practice to the teacher, instead of looking inside at the value of their own practice. This discourages me and I am sure it discourages the student(s) saying it as well. I think back to what we did in class and how we can make class more inclusive and level the playing field to remind everyone that all there is is practice; that each advanced pose (and some not so advanced) have taken years of practice. And that the only difference between the person at the front of the room and the rest of the room is amount of time practiced and studied.

Personally, I try to combat this by practicing next to my students. I like to go to someone else’s class and be true to my practice whatever it is on that day. So if that means falling over in class next to someone I regularly teach, then that is what it is. I am human and so is my yoga practice. I hope that witnessing a teacher still in the throes of learning and practice reminds us all that we never stop learning, never stop growing and always need to practice, in yoga and in life. Yoga is a game of slow and steady wins the race. Slow and steady, just like the breath. This is a call to practice for all of us but also a call to cut yourself some slack when you or your yoga teacher makes a mistake or falls over. Reframe your “mistake” into information about your body and put negative self talk on notice. We are all human and we all have to practice (with the body that shows up on that day).

Be kind to yourself and happy practicing!

Namaste,
Sawrah