On what we study, how we study, and who we learn from (Part 1)
Imagine you find a sport or practice you love and get into a good groove. Then for whatever reason something changes—your coach or teacher; your body or lifestyle—and suddenly the thing that once felt awesome feels felt different. Maybe even foreign.
Now you’re stumped. Do you try another teacher? Explore another variation of the same practice or subject? Deepen your understanding and find a fresh approach? Drop it and move on to something new?
A student recently asked me to describe the type of yoga I teach because she enjoys my vinyasa-flow style—which I adapt based on the needs of the group I’m teaching—but vinyasa classes felt way too rushed for her at another studio. The quicker pace made her feel discouraged and confused by a practice she thought she liked.
I never mind nerd-ing out about how and why I teach the way I do, but I almost always preface it with something like this:
- Just because you prefer a certain type of yoga (or any practice or subject), doesn’t mean you’ll always vibe with the teacher, leader, or guide—whether it’s their overall demeanor or their approach / methodology.
- If you don’t vibe with the guide, it doesn’t mean the practice (sport, subject, etc) isn’t for you. Maybe you don’t yet have the appropriate tools to adapt it to your body, or you haven’t found an approach that suits your current needs.
I’ve experienced this myself, too. I love, teach, and practice my own integrated version of vinyasa yoga. But after a while, I noticed that many vinyasa classes had shifted toward squeezing in as many shapes as possible rather than leaving space to explore the relationship of the poses, general alignment, the breath, and the various benefits.
Some people “just want to move” without going deeper into anatomical stuff, which I understand, and it’s so important to move even if the form isn’t pitch perfect—please do what you can to move your body! But sometimes movement without attention can come at the expense of joint / muscle health and general embodied awareness.
Even though I believe all yoga can be a gateway to mind-body connection, some of these and other yoga trends kind of spun me for a loop. I felt like people—sometimes myself included—were missing the whole integrated mindfulness point of yoga.
Yoga philosophy teaches that not everything is in our control à la practice and non-attachment, but we can control how we show up. So I got clear on how I wanted to approach vinyasa, and I realized that I had a solid set of tools that would help me take care of myself in any class. Same goes for taking care of my students when I teach.
I’m sharing this not to pump myself up—although I do like my personal approaches 🙂 —but to inspire you to:
- Equip yourself with a personal understanding of what you’re practicing in order to have the most integrated experience possible.
- Explore who you want guiding you on the path of learning; to connect with what and who aligns with you.
- Check in with and attune to yourself as your needs, body, and life evolve.
Disclaimer: This is from my personal perspective and studies—not a textbook, a single lineage or methodology, or ChattyG.
Establish a base & explore from there
Feel free to apply this yoga analogy to anything you’re learning or practicing…
When we approach yoga with a steady base and clearer understanding of posture, structure, and adaptation, it can radically inform any style we choose to practice. For me, that base has been Iyengar Yoga (subject to change…but probably not).
The idea of a base from which to expand upon isn’t unique to yoga:
- Dance: Ballet technique → jazz, contemporary, theater dance (even US football).
- Pilates → Stability and structured mobility—dancers and more (cool history).
- Sports: Drills and form → personalized variations and strategic decision making.
- Strength training: Basic structure and principles → creative functional movement, training for specific activities, lifting things (kids, groceries, luggage).
- Meditation: Simple present-moment awareness tools → visualization, forgiveness and compassion practices, Metta/Lovingkindness.
- Coaching: Clarity around goals in different areas of your life → specialized support like nutrition/health, business/career, relationship/parenting.
- Cooking: Base skills and techniques → unique methods, cultural cuisines, nutrition/health-informed cooking. (Baking is probably it’s own category, no?)
The Iyengar method shifted how I practice yoga because it accommodates individual bodies and offers customizable tools that translate across other styles like Vinyasa, Hatha, Ashtanga—and whatever other yoga spin-offs are out there.
This doesn’t mean you MUST practice Iyengar to receive the benefits of yoga or to have a good understanding of the structure of yoga poses—it’s just what works for me. You might build your base through practices like weight training, physical therapy, Pilates, other yoga styles, workshops, or just lived experience and intuition.
Yoga in general also informed and enhanced how I dance, sit, walk, and exist as a human in the world. Needless to say: 10/10 recommend some form of embodied physical practice—whatever resonates with you.
Breaking my wrist last year also definitely reshaped how I practice, teach, and live. Having my own steady base has made recovery much more navigable.
Onward
Just so we’re clear, nothing I’m saying is Dogma.
Even though different yoga styles and teachers have their own approaches to alignment, I do believe a baseline understanding of posture can create freedom in experimenting with varying styles. It’s helped me personally, and I’ve seen how it’s supported other students throughout the years, too, because:
Discipline can result in creativity.
Steadiness can create spaciousness.
Strength can improve mobility.
If my personal knowledge base isn’t in parallel with other teachers or methods—whether yoga, spirituality, nutrition—that’s not necessarily a problem. Sometimes it’s healthy to challenge what you believe is “best” by exploring something unfamiliar and non-habitual. I highly recommend staying curious and open to different experiences.
Bottom line: Get to know yourself enough to know what works well for you, and know that all of that might change over time.
To be continued next week: Aligning with teachers and guides who inspire you to learn and explore.
What practice, subject, or tools help you feel steady enough to expand your horizon?
Take good care,
S
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