The Reason We Line Up Our Yoga Mats in Class
My yoga teachers taught me how to be a student. These are some of the invaluable lessons (I am still learning):
- Listen Deeply: be receptive, be open to learning something new.
- Pay Attention and Remember. Mr. Iyenger used to say, “I hope my students make new mistakes.” I take this to mean that making mistakes is part of the process of yoga (and life) and that over time, as we learn, we will start to make new mistakes and learn new things instead of just making the same mistakes over, and over and never learn from them.
- Cultivate Discernment, Discrimination, and learn to make clear Distinctions about almost everything in yoga (and life).
- Trust Myself. Ultimately I get to say what works and doesn’t work for me, and I have a responsibility to honor my own innate wisdom.
- “No Top End,” there’s always more to learn, another octave to leap, different parts of ourselves to observe. The process is endless.
- Make Room for Mystery. “I don’t know” is a great place to be, no need to rush toward the answers.
When my first yoga teacher asked me to line up my yoga mat with the person next to me, I did this obediently, I trusted her instruction and it didn’t cost me anything. I learned a sense of spatial awareness so that I became more attuned to who and what was beside, behind, and in front of me.
My training in dance also helped me to listen with more than my ears. I listened with my whole body. I took my cues from the layout of the room—walls, mirrors, windows, door, other people, props, etc. I learned to survey a room the moment I entered and adjust myself accordingly. Part of being a student, for me, was adapting to what any particular space needed at the moment. (This is one of my on-going practices. I am nowhere near perfecting this awareness technique, but I do enjoy the subtlety of paying attention in this way).
Yoga is a process of joining ourselves with a larger perspective—the Divine, our Higher Self—and it’s a process of becoming more aware, more integrated, and remembering who we truly are. Paying attention to how we enter the yoga classroom (or any room) is just another tool for cultivating self-awareness.
“Hidden in every shape, every alignment cue, every “do this” and “don’t do this” is a call to pay attention: first to the shape, then to the placement of our body, then to the actions that activate the posture, then to the effects on our body, mind and mood, and finally to the part of us that watches it all. alignment in yoga is far from an exhaustive list of perfection-oriented details, but is, instead, a call to pay attention to who we are at the increasingly deep and more subtle layers of our being. ”
Christin Sell, “A Deeper Yoga: Moving Beyond Body Image to Wholeness and Freedom,” (pg. 20-21).
Sacred space happens with/through intention. Sacred means “worthy of respect.” First, we honor our bodies in this way. Our physical bodies are sacred, worthy of respect. And the space in which we practice (yoga, meditation, dance, writing, music) is also worthy of respect. We honor ourselves by setting up our space intentionally, just like decorating our homes. We bring love, honor, and respect to the places we call home, starting with our bodies and extending that loving attention outward to our cars, classrooms, and the natural world.
Get your copy of Christina Sell’s new book here. A Deeper Yoga.