Random yoga teacher musings:
The physical practice of yoga shouldn’t be seen as other forms of “exercise”. Asana practice is a very small part of yoga philosophy.

Ofc there are immediate physical benefits too but the main focus of your physical practice should be to teach you to accept reality as it is— Accepting the current state of your body, accepting where you are in the present, listening to yourself.

You can’t hold an Asana if you’re being nasty to yourself. If you let ego get in the way. If you get competitive. If you look at someone else’s mat.

Your mat is your safe space. Your practice is YOUR practice. You have different strengths and different weakness as compared to others. All you have to focus on is observing how YOUR body is responding to your movements.

The physical practice of yoga is aimed at making your body supple and strong so you can sit in a meditative posture (padmasana ) for a longer period of time. The physical practice leads to your journey inward. Every posture looks different on different people.

There is NO point in comparing or being competitive. Yoga is a very personal practice. Ofccc during the course of this journey you end up doing many cool looking postures too. But that’s an added benefit that’s all.

When you do balancing postures on your legs, head or arm balances. Or when you’re twisting into a shape. Each posture has a significance. And you cannot hold any of them if you don’t regulate your breath and tone down the constant chatter in your mind.

In the beginning tho you will feel cramped. Your mind will constantly tell you how much u suck at this. How much it “hurts”. And u will be annoyed cuz u will feel you aren’t looking graceful like people around u. PLZ NOTE- NO YOGA PERSON U SEE ONLINE LOOKS LIKE THIS OVERNIGHT.

Then over time u will learn to accept things as they are.. You will discover your strengths. You will discover how sometimes you involuntarily hold your breath when you’re stressed. You will start observing how that affects you.

You will notice where you are more open and where you’re tight. You will start being gentle with yourself. And this is what I love about being able to teach people. To be in a position where I’m trying to help someone to be friends with themselves. To be kinder to themselves.

To make them play during the practice. To help people discover that lost child within themselves so they can learn postures thru playing around. To make them learn to not fear “looking stupid”. To find that place of calm and quiet within themselves.

In the actual world..mostly people want to learn how to do a specific pose Or they want to lose weight. They come to yoga teachers with specific goals. Which is allll good. And welcome.
But ...this is just how I view asana practice

~enddokbyeeeee sorry not sorry for long thread

May or may not delete idk. Just stuff in my head dat I wanted to get out.