Alright, so now that I'm a teeeeeeeacher, I have become very, very fancy.
(I got enlightened for my birthday, did I tell you all that? Yes, it's finally happened. I don't like to talk about it much, since I no longer have an ego and have no need to pump myself up in any way, but let me tell you...it is AWESOME. See you on the other side, suckas!)
Hmm, that's two references to a "sucka" in two blog posts. That's not right.
Anyhooooooo...what I was actually going to say is that now that I've become a teacher, I just spend a lot more time talking about yoga, and in particular, talking about styles of yoga.
"what style do you teach?" "what style of class is this?" "what style of studio do you work at" etc., etc., etc.. And it's been an interesting thing for me in Los Angeles, because although there are a lot of "flow" studios and classes around ("flow" is technically the style that I teach. Though now that I'm enlightened (and 30) I don't much care for laaaaaabels) but there are NOT a lot of classes or studios that really teach in the style that I am trained in, which is...ROCK STAR YOGA!!!
(insert slammin' guitar riff here)
I'm kidding. Sort of. Because actually a big component of what I teach involves music and creativity and (I hope) a kind of celebratory approach to the practice that can be a little free-form.... This is the kind of style that is par for the course in New York but very difficult to find in Los Angeles...which can be a GREAT thing for me as a teacher and/or it can get me greeted with looks of horror and disgust from students and acquaintances.
THEM: What style do you teach?
ME: (explains style).
THEM: (just-smelled-something-rotten-face) Oooooh, I don't like that.
I'm taking a small amount of artistic license here, but I have had several interactions in the past couple weeks where people have proclaimed with fierce distaste: "I don't like to move fast" when it comes to yoga class.
Well, I have the following things to say about that:
1. ME NEITHER!! A good flow class shouldn't be "fast"...it should flow. The idea of Vinyasa, or any flow style, is that you're threading poses fluidly together...the idea is not to move "fast". In Power Yoga maybe you move fast, but Vinyasa should be...flowing. It should be rythmic. It should move at the pace of the breath.
2. Taking into account #1 above...the other thing about flow is that the intention is a little bit different than with a more-alignment based style. Part of the intention of flow is to hypnotize the brain with that ceaseless fluid movement AND to get the body (and the spirit) lined up and in tune with a larger pulsation. The pulsation of the universe, actually, is what we're trying to line up with (if I may be so bold).
So...
3. Flow classes MUST be approached with a different expectation. No, you are not going to spend as long in any one pose. No you are not going to be doing a ton of deep anatomy talk, though depending on the teacher, you very well might. I've got a whole class planned about the hands. So there, suckas!
What I'm trying to say is that of course we all have preferences...I have preferences. My god, I have a really serious Anusara practice in addition to my flow practice and sometimes all I want to do is go slow, go deep, stay immersed in a pose...but I think that the "flow" often gets a bad rap among students who maybe have never even really given it a fair shot. And I want to say, in defense of flow teachers and students everywhere, that it is JUST as valuable and JUST as deep a practice as any other.
(As I'm writing this I realize I have to apologize, silently, for all the judgy things I've thought about Bikram yoga in the past. Sorry, Bikram!! We're all in this together!)
