I probably attended my first yoga class in the early Seventies. But with a house full of small children, it was hard to get out to classes and so I found a 28-day yoga plan that I could do at home. There was a different sequence of postures for each day and I would get up early before the kids were up and get in some ‘me’ time by doing yoga. |
For years, I was able to use my various postures as sort of a party-trick, showing friends and family that I could stand on my head and contort my legs into unfathomable positions.
As the kids grew up, I had more time for classes and I tried all the different types, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Hatha, Bikram etc. I didn’t really enjoy the classes as I found them competitive and often left feeling exhausted instead of exhilarated! And over time, I had incurred just too many injuries in the actual yoga classes to even consider going anymore.
Then a few years ago I heard about Esoteric Yoga. I was naturally curious about how esoteric yoga would compare to all the other types of yoga I had tried. I knew straight away that it was going to be something completely different because we were instructed to bring pillows and blankets along with our yoga mat!
The first esoteric yoga session I took was extremely uncomfortable for me but I couldn’t figure out why because the physical exertion level was next to zero.
It involved a lot of lying down and the occasional sitting up. The difficult part was trying to stay present with the quiet instructions of focusing my mind on the different body parts during the gentle movements. I found this initial experience quite confronting and decided it was too weird for further exploration. Yet, when the next class rolled around, I found myself packing up my pillow, blankets and mat. I still didn’t exactly enjoy the class but I could see my resistance to being still for an hour was my biggest issue.
When I look back on it now, I’m rather surprised that I was able to persist with the classes as I was one of those people who was busy, busy, busy and I liked being busy.
It made me feel needed. Made me feel important. Being still, being with myself, focusing my mind for a whole hour on my body – all of that was uncomfortable. But something deep inside of me could feel the merit in what was offered in esoteric yoga.
Over the years I have attended esoteric yoga classes in face-to-face groups and on-line groups. They aren’t that different because the focus is always on staying with yourself – listening to your body. It’s about finding the centre of stillness within. I can remember initially thinking that stillness was boring. Ha! Once I ceased my resistance to stillness, I began to feel the spaciousness that comes in stillness.
Even just riding a breath cycle from the cool air coming in at the tip of your nose to the pause in stillness at the top of the in-breath to following it back to the warm air exiting at the bottom of your nostril can seem like a full holiday away from the craziness of the world we live in.
The Yoga of Stillness offers us the opportunity to develop a conscious presence in the body. Aligning our mind with our body creates a harmony that is felt both within and without, felt by ourselves and by others.
Gayle C, Australia
As the kids grew up, I had more time for classes and I tried all the different types, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Hatha, Bikram etc. I didn’t really enjoy the classes as I found them competitive and often left feeling exhausted instead of exhilarated! And over time, I had incurred just too many injuries in the actual yoga classes to even consider going anymore.
Then a few years ago I heard about Esoteric Yoga. I was naturally curious about how esoteric yoga would compare to all the other types of yoga I had tried. I knew straight away that it was going to be something completely different because we were instructed to bring pillows and blankets along with our yoga mat!
The first esoteric yoga session I took was extremely uncomfortable for me but I couldn’t figure out why because the physical exertion level was next to zero.
It involved a lot of lying down and the occasional sitting up. The difficult part was trying to stay present with the quiet instructions of focusing my mind on the different body parts during the gentle movements. I found this initial experience quite confronting and decided it was too weird for further exploration. Yet, when the next class rolled around, I found myself packing up my pillow, blankets and mat. I still didn’t exactly enjoy the class but I could see my resistance to being still for an hour was my biggest issue.
When I look back on it now, I’m rather surprised that I was able to persist with the classes as I was one of those people who was busy, busy, busy and I liked being busy.
It made me feel needed. Made me feel important. Being still, being with myself, focusing my mind for a whole hour on my body – all of that was uncomfortable. But something deep inside of me could feel the merit in what was offered in esoteric yoga.
Over the years I have attended esoteric yoga classes in face-to-face groups and on-line groups. They aren’t that different because the focus is always on staying with yourself – listening to your body. It’s about finding the centre of stillness within. I can remember initially thinking that stillness was boring. Ha! Once I ceased my resistance to stillness, I began to feel the spaciousness that comes in stillness.
Even just riding a breath cycle from the cool air coming in at the tip of your nose to the pause in stillness at the top of the in-breath to following it back to the warm air exiting at the bottom of your nostril can seem like a full holiday away from the craziness of the world we live in.
The Yoga of Stillness offers us the opportunity to develop a conscious presence in the body. Aligning our mind with our body creates a harmony that is felt both within and without, felt by ourselves and by others.
Gayle C, Australia