Afraid I'll Do It Wrong
There’s a yoga student we’ll call Clara who’s been coming to classes for years. She loves her yoga practice and knows the poses inside and out. I name the pose and she gracefully explores the shape, playing with it’s nuances and how her body feels that day.
Clara is so committed to her yoga that I’m surprised when she tells me she only practices with teachers. When I ask why she doesn’t do any yoga on her own she says that she’d really like to have a home practice, but she’s worried she’ll do it wrong.
This incredible practitioner is missing out on the empowerment and depth that come from personal practice not because she doesn’t want to practice, but because she’s worried about messing up if she tries. Ugh! It makes my heart so sad to hear!
“I MIGHT DO IT WRONG”
Sadly, Clara’s not the first to tell me this story. Many students worry that they’ll mess up when it comes to developing a personal yoga practice. It comes from a deeply held belief that there is a right way and a wrong way to practice. Your teacher knows the right way and you don’t know, so don’t bother trying it on your own.
It’s tricky, because if you study alignment-based yoga (like what I teach) you’re taught to pay a lot of attention to the way that you place your body in your poses. Without intending it, teachers can give the impression that there is a right way to place your body. Which implies that there is a wrong way too.
Just believing in the right/wrong dichotomy is enough to stop folks from starting a home practice. If you can’t remember particular alignment instructions you might think that you’ll hurt yourself by doing it “wrong”. You may also worry about putting the poses in the “right” order. And if you haven’t taken a yoga teacher training you might believe that you can’t possibly know enough to get it right.
BEYOND RIGHT/WRONG
What’s actually true is that there isn’t a right or wrong way to practice yoga. There are alignment instructions that may or may not help you, but it’s important not to confuse them with unbreakable rules that are carved in stone. And for every alignment style of yoga there are hundreds of others that never talk about alignment at all. So, there are instructions that teachers use when we practice yoga in groups… and then there’s your practice.
If you let go of right and wrong ways, what’s left is YOUR way. The way that your body likes to move or needs to move today. The way that your brain puts poses in an order that feels interesting or soothing. The way that your breath meets the pose. The way that your Heart responds when you take time to do something for yourself. When you develop a personal practice, all of it is about YOU. And about deepening your experience of the yoga that you already love.
BUILD A HOME PRACTICE
If you knew you couldn’t mess it up, I mean you really believed it, how would you build your personal yoga practice? My recommendation for getting started is to follow these simple steps:
Roll out your mat and set an intention to explore
Take a few breaths or Chant OM to center yourself
Ask your body and heart what they want
Do that (don’t worry about whether it’s the ‘right’ thing, just try it out)
If you get stuck, ask again and do whatever comes to mind
When you feel finished, practice savasana
Afterwards write down your experience and your questions
Bring your questions to your teacher if you’d like to deepen your conversations about your practice
The caveat here is that you can be a lifelong yoga student and only ever learn from teachers. It’s a fabulous way to embrace yoga and make it part of your life. Nobody needs to practice on their own.
But, there’s something really transformational that happens when you take the responsibility for guiding yourself in your yoga practice. Instead of relying on your teacher, you learn to rely on your inner guidance - your breath, your body, your inspiration, your Heart - to lead the way. As you do, you feel empowered. You also deepen into an intimacy with Mystery. So, while no one ever needs to develop a personal practice, if you ARE called towards it, I highly recommend it.
IT’S YOUR YOGA
More important that whether you ever roll out your mat on your own is the remembrance that there isn’t ever a right or wrong way to practice yoga. Whatever a teacher offers you is always a suggestion not law (even if they’re presenting it that way). You are your most important guide when it comes to your practice.
Start in your body. Listen to your breath. Get intimate with Mystery and let it guide you home to your Self. There’s no wrong way to get there.