Beginner's Yoga advice please :-)

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Permalink Reply by Uti on December 9, 2008 at 10:54pm

Kelly, Living in Manhattan presents a wonderful challenge --- picking one out of dozens of classes offered daily at the many locations around your city. Iyengar Yoga Institute is a well known and highly respected studio offering 3 level one classes daily. Jivamukti Yoga Center offers yoga classes with more of a spiritual perspective. For thousands of years yoga has been shared by personal transmission from the Sharer to the Student. A good instructor will give you the personal attention to lead you towards correct alignment and finding your beginning place with the postures, but more importantly will keep a person's tendency towards over-achievement in check to avoid injuries.

My suggestion is to celebrate the abundance and see it as a treasure hunt to find a style and instructor that resonates with you. Don't be in a hurry, peace with your body and inner peace come with patience and commitment. Pick 3 beginning level classes and go to each one of them over a period of 2 weeks skipping at least 2 days between classes. At the end of the 3rd class chose the one you liked the best to go back to again and then pick 2 new classes to attend. Keep this up until you have found one that you have a strong preference for. You will probably chose one by the time you have sampled 6 to 9 different classes. Then immerse yourself in that class and get all you can out of it. Once you're in the yoga community you may find people who will suggest other classes and you may want to sample a different style every now and then.

Yoga doesn't need many rules. In my path we only have 4 and the #1 rule is: Just show up and put your body on the floor. Having done that you will have already achieved success.

Classes are an important place to get direction and learn the basic postures. We have a saying that is repeated at the end of each of our classes and it applies to everyone doing yoga. True gains come in a personal practice. A personal practice is something you can do anywhere, anytime, even if it is just closing your eyes and focusing on your breath for a few minutes during your busy day. Take what you learn in a class and explore it at home where you can take your time to indulge yourself in specific parts of the postures. This is how you will own your yoga.

Lastly, whatever you do have fun!

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Permalink Reply by Raini on December 10, 2008 at 1:42pm

Yeah I would experiment with classes locally. Are you looking for a video or instructor?

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Permalink Reply by Kelly on December 10, 2008 at 7:49pm

Thank you all for your advice, it is a great help to me.
I really appreciate the time you took to reply,

Thanks again

Kelly x

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