All our lives we hear of the importance of having a "balanced diet." Yet, when viewed through yogic eyes, this popular conception (like most) proves to be, even on its best days, merely a half truth. What we require is not a balanced diet but a balancing diet. We require a diet that balances us, not itself.
In the same way, our personal asana practice should not be balanced but should balance us, and our asana classes should balance our students. Since most of us are in varying states of imbalance,a yoga class will often appear to be imbalanced to the untrained observer.
Health and yoga are all about finding balance. Effort and rest. Elimination and assimilation. Yang and yin. Day and night. Extreme action leads to death and so does extreme inaction. Finding balance leads to health.
I know many teachers who believe that they have failed as teachers if, at the end of class, their students are not drenched with sweat and exhausted. Yet, a teachers goal should not be to further exhaust their students but to make them whole.
It's a struggle to work against the notions that already exist in our society. We are taught to work hard and ignore the body's pleas for rest, substituting coffee and stimulation for the nap or extra hour of sleep which would otherwise restore us. Because of this, students usually come to class in varying states of exhaustion. Doing an entire practice of intense movement causes an exhausted nervous system to become thoroughly depleted. Of course, moving a student vigorously is important since most people don't move enough in their daily lives of sitting in chairs all day, achy, and chronically stiff. Yet, we must find a balance and make sure all the students feels as whole as possible—rather than as exhausted as possible—when she leaves class. In stressful times such as these, perhaps it's time for classes that emphasize restorative poses more.
"Compliments of Yoga Journal"
Sunday, May 6, 2012
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