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| Creating Spaces For New Yoga Students |
It is a practice I don't do enough of and often I fail because of some of the same things she talks about in her article. Yet, I know just like she is saying that with a good Yoga teacher, there is a pure place of peace that you can reach. This place of peace is because we have allowed our mind and body to connect.
Unfortunately, the only place I can currently experience Yoga is through the LA Fitness center that I belong to in my area. While it is Yoga, they rush it through like it is an exercise class and they miss a major part of Yoga's benefit. Of course, LA Fitness doesn't seem to care because like everything else in this club, the money appears to matter most.
At one time in my life, I had a great Yoga teacher that I practiced Yoga with and she really understood how breathing impacted the practice of Yoga when it took you deeper into the mind body connection. She understood what it meant to push your body and then let it relax which is a key to connecting your mind and body together. Often when I would go to her class, it was during a very busy point in my life and I would almost feel foolish for going because I did not feel like I had enough time to spend with Yoga. Yet, if I went and did Yoga in the morning with her, I could often accomplish much more in my day and I was at least ten times more productive. It was like my mind had been cleared and because of that, it was running at top speeds like a well tuned high performance car.
Of course, we have people out there preaching that it is demonic or that you are worshiping some other God than the churches allow you to worship. Really? Yes, that is what a minister in the Mars Hill Church says. He thinks that just because everyone doesn't know the roots of Yoga, that they are following this "false religion". I'm sad that he lives in a world where you have to live your life in such a narrow minded way. Of course, I'm not surprised by this, but if more people practice an exercise routine such as Yoga and allowed the mind body connection to happen, our world would be a more peaceful place. Instead of condemning. controlling and manipulating one another with our beliefs, we might just learn to discover what it means to be human. There is nothing demonic about the mind body connection.
You can take Yoga as far as you want to just as you can take church and religious practices as far as you feel appropriate. However, you could look at them for what they are and see how they fit into the overall picture of life, human awareness and the evolution of the mind. We can all stay stuck in our current position being afraid of yoga because of body issues or religious condemnations we practice, but at the end of the day, we will be stagnate in fulfilling our life's potential. The only way to experience the mind body connection is by allowing our self to fully feel and experience our body, not by hiding behind our fears or some religious beliefs. When we allow our self to experience life fully, we will for the first time, begin to understand what it means to be human. Without that experience, we are nothing more than a physical entity walking on this planet.
I'm glad Katie Lamie wrote this article and I wish I lived closer to her because she sounds like the right kind of person to be teaching Yoga. Having that understanding of how to invite people in makes all the difference in allowing your body to experience the peace of the mind body connection.
Related Blog Posts
1) Mind Body Breath Connection (Jul 30, 2010)
Resources
1) Creating Space For New Yoga Students (MindBodyGreen.com)
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