{"id":4204,"date":"2017-04-07T11:49:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T11:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movementformodernlife.com\/blog\/?p=4204"},"modified":"2017-09-08T12:56:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T12:56:10","slug":"advanced-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movementformodernlife.com\/blog\/advanced-yoga\/","title":{"rendered":"What does it mean to be an Advanced Yogi?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Us humans appear to be somewhat obsessed with the notion of progression. Well I certainly am! I love to think that I\u2019m progressing and achieving goals, and I think I\u2019m not alone in this.<\/h3>\n

\"progression\"<\/p>\n

But the idea of goals is a tad troublesome when it comes to yoga. As you know, yoga is, in it\u2019s nature non-competitive. We\u2019re not meant to compete with each other, or ourselves. But humans being humans love to compete with ourselves and we love to \u2018progress\u2019 our practice. And usually, that progression is taken to be the ability to perform ever more tricky poses.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll have seen we have Beginners<\/a>,\u00a0Improvers<\/a> and Advanced<\/a> classes on the site. And it\u2019d be logical to think that we \u2018progress\u2019 through these phases. But it ain\u2019t necessarily so! Some bodies will never be destined for some poses. And other bodies manage to slip, fairly easily into the knots required for Intermediate\/Advanced, but these folks are fairly new to yoga. These bodies might be more fit and limber, with proportions that help yoga poses, or maybe the practitioner has a gymnastics or dancing background so can more easily find the poses. But we must remember that, wonderful that these poses are to look at, and tempting as it is to imitate these bodies, that isn\u2019t yoga!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Being flexible\u00a0can create the illusion of a perfect pose…<\/p><\/div>\n

So what is yoga, then, if it\u2019s not the ability to bend, stretch and flex?<\/h3>\n

Well, yoga is a little different to gymnastics or cirque de soleil. Yoga is a search for unity. It\u2019s when on a physical level, the body, breath and mind quiet and work as one, and on a spiritual level, when you realise the existential truth that we are all one and that separation doesn\u2019t exist. That is yoga. And advancement is really, purely on the basis of your spiritual practice towards that goal. If advancement in yoga were in the attainment of poses, we would just be collecting gymnastics awards.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Got a body? Can breathe?\u00a0Yoga is for you!<\/p><\/div>\n

So here\u2019s my conundrum which I\u2019d like to share with you:<\/h3>\n

How to guide people through the site, making it clear that beginners to yoga would be unsafe to try trickier poses if their bodies aren\u2019t used to moving with the breath, whilst enabling those who are fitter and stronger to be able to challenge their physicality.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve been pondering these categories of \u2018Beginner<\/a>\/Improvers<\/a>\/Advanced<\/a>\u2019 for a while and the more I ponder, the more I dislike them. After all, when I was new to yoga as an 18 year old, I could do many \u2018advanced\u2019 poses \u2013 my body was naturally bendy, long limbed and willowy, of course an ashtanga practice called, and almost seemed easy.<\/p>\n

Now that the decades have rolled on, I appreciate a \u2018beginners<\/a>\u2019 class!<\/h3>\n

I love to move with a much more refined breath and slower pace.\u00a0I feel that with a slower yoga class, I am able to achieve my \u2018yoga\u2019 much more easily than a faster paced vinyasa flow. But yes, some days I find something feisty is called for, that my body is just longing to stretch. But I wouldn\u2019t call my shapes advanced, it\u2019s just that the pace and shapes are what\u2019s needed when I\u2019m feeling more feisty. I don\u2019t know about you, but I tend to recoil at teachers who say \u2018if you practice you\u2019ll achieve x pose\u2019. Well, why is it always a good idea for my body to achieve x pose? Not all poses are suitable for my body. My body holds past injuries and has a history and I just don\u2019t want to push into certain poses. But that\u2019s just me, my body, today.<\/p>\n

And in any event, the teacher may be wrong that your body may not \u2018advance\u2019 in the way that they think, simply because this flesh and blood is very fragile and anything can happen along the way! Whereas the spirit the mind – well that really can progress, no matter if we are caught in a car crash tomorrow, that yoga practice can continue.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the point of it all. All of our bodies are quite different and have very different needs. If you practice more gentle yoga, it may be a sign of an advanced, not a beginner practice. And those who need to practice yoga as a workout have more of a beginner’s mind. It\u2019s all a bit topsy turvey. It has to be said, I\u00a0think that practicing Yin Yoga<\/a> is a sign of a very advanced practice!<\/p>\n

>>Check out our Yin and Restorative Yoga Classess>><\/a><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What I\u2019d love to do would be to re-define our categories in a way that folks can understand that beginners classes aren\u2019t for beginners and advanced classes aren\u2019t for the advanced.<\/h3>\n

But the question is \u2013 would a complete beginner understand beginners<\/a> by any other name?<\/p>\n

Intermediate<\/a>\u00a0is good for those who want to up the ante a little. And I think that Level 3 or Advanced classes<\/a> are for those who are looking for something feisty on that day and whose bodies are injury free, strong, healthy and are used to practicing yoga for a few years or more. But the conundrum of the human need for classification continues. Just remember not to take them too seriously.<\/p>\n

We’d love to know your thoughts!<\/h3>\n

What should we call our categories? Share your\u00a0ideas and suggestions in the comments box below…<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This post was written by our fabulous founder, Kat Farrants.<\/p>\n

Send to Facebook<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Us humans appear to be somewhat obsessed with the notion of progression. Well I certainly am! I love to think that I\u2019m progressing and achieving goals, and I think I\u2019m not alone in this. But the idea of goals is a tad troublesome when it comes to yoga. As you know, yoga is, in it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[797,800,473,799,798],"class_list":["post-4204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-advanced-yoga","tag-advanced-yogi","tag-what-is-yoga","tag-yoga-for-all","tag-yoga-for-everyone"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat does it mean to be an Advanced Yogi? - Movement for Modern Life Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Us humans appear to be somewhat obsessed with the notion of progression but the idea of goals is a tad troublesome when it comes to yoga.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movementformodernlife.com\/blog\/advanced-yoga\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What does it mean to be an Advanced Yogi? 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