Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Evaluating My Yoga Practice


Azmi has told us that he will be evaluating our practice and will be giving us a “report card” next week during the Christmas Gathering.   He has been observing us in class for the past week and will be evaluating us on our strengths and weaknesses.      I am quite apprehensive to know how Azmi has evaluated my practice but I know it would be good to have the evaluation as it would give me the guidance to progress in my practice.

Meanwhile, I have been doing some thinking about my own practice and made some evaluation of my own.  I think sometimes, I pushed too hard in my practice when I let my ego take over in trying to show the teacher that I am able to do the poses.  Instead of listening and checking in with my body on how I am feeling in the pose, I try to go beyond my limit and it becomes how I look in the pose.  I also feel that I need to be more present in the pose as I sometimes get distracted by how another practitioner is doing the pose which causes me to compel myself into a pose instead of observing and focusing on how my body is feeling in the pose.   I think this is one of the reasons why I like the Mysore class as I feel that I am able to be more present as I am more focused using my breaths to hold in the poses.  

"If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything." - Thich Nhat Hanh


2 comments:

Kaivalya said...

I'm not sure I would ever want a 'report card' on my practice. I'm accustomed to receiving a lot of feedback as I'm practicing and that's valuable. But a 'report card' brings up memories of those horrible 'employee reviews' I used to endure when I worked in the corporate world. I hated them, even when they were positive.

This isn't a criticism of your teacher - more an observation that different methods work for different students. I'm glad there is so much variety amongst Astanga teachers! I'm grateful I've found teachers with a method that resonates with me.

Karin said...

Hi Kaivalya,

I think sometimes we get so protective of our practice that we are not willing to hear that there's any wrong with with.

My teacher has been giving me regular feedback on the poses and as I have been practicing with him for four years now, I would also like to know how he sees my progress in my practice.

Namaste,
Karin