Week 5

 

“[Yoga] is a daily lifelong practice” A quote from last week's online yoga class from guest teachers Andrew and Mila Eppler. When they guided the class through the steps, Andrew talked his way through while Mila showed us how it should look. During practice, I did find it odd that Andrew only spoke throughout the class and did not do any of the poses but then also only Mila showed how to do it and didn’t say anything. This week’s class has been my fifth online yoga class this semester through zoom. Although I am not a huge fan of zoom and prefer to experience things like these in person, having some background before starting an actual in-person class I believe could help in future classes. For example, being more familiar with the name of the pose and have the ability to perform the class without looking up. This is completely possible with all in-person classes but for me, hearing all the terms before putting them into action helps with actively using them. I would like to take this class in person when I can because I can get more out of it and work better on my flexibility. I still consider myself to be a beginner and Ashtanga Yoga is, in my opinion, a good starting class for those who have taken a couple of classes but are looking to gain more experience overall.

The Ashtanga Yoga class, to me, looked like what typical “yoga” looks like in Hollywood films and shows. When someone off the street on the west coast (of the US) thinks of yoga, they may say it consists of chanting, humming, vocalizing “om”, and performing poses like the downward dog. The first thing we did was chant. The chanting sounded like a sort of prayer but there were no words. Throughout we did positions like downward dog and other “typical” positions but what I noted more in Ashtanga yoga compared to others was that each pose blended into the next more smoothly. It could be that some experience has been gained and/or this type of yoga is more suitable for me. Some parts were at a very quick pace and catching up was a bit of a problem, which I don’t believe is beginner-friendly, but there were parts that focused on breathing and slowed everything down. The fast parts reminded me of dance class years ago when the teacher would count 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Glancing back at Smith and Nevrin, I think that my practice space does not provide a space of community because in the space, only I am practicing. If the practice space were to be a part of an in-person class then in my opinion it will bring a sense of community. In a traditional yoga studio, the teacher could have some decorations on the wall that reminds people why that came and why they chose it to do yoga. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final Journal

  Number 14 and final yoga journal. I started the class by only taking one yoga class at Stockton my freshman year of college and now being a senior, my perspective of yoga has changed. At first, I saw it as a ridiculous exercise that was a trend on the west coast, for example, California. Due to the current global pandemic of covid-19, classes at Stockton were converted to be online. This made it impossible to hold live face-to-face yoga sessions and was hard to truly experience what can be. For me, I preferred the meditative aspect of yoga and also the physical as well but not at the same time. The reason I chose to take this course is for my holistic health minor because I am always interested in alternative medicines and practices to heal the body in a natural way. Not everything can be done naturally, there will always be instances where medical intervention is required. This experience of learning and practicing yoga at home has taught me that Yoga can be done without fancy equ
Read more

Week 3

            Week three of online yoga. This week’s class was via a zoom call in class with guest speaker Diane Polli. She walked us through a different kind of yoga called Bikram Yoga. Although she did not perform the poses, Professor Greene showed the class how it was done. For this type of yoga, I’ve noticed that the individual performing it must already have some flexibility. As a beginner, it was not starter friendly and I was not able to fully or correctly perform the positions. In a typical Bikram Yoga studio, those who practice regularly and are familiar with how the class flows, are put in the front to show others how to carry out the positions. Since this class was online and was not available for an in-person setting, I believe it was executed the best it could.           The beginning of the class felt pointless; we started with a breathing exercise to lay out the foundation, but it was just moving my head and arms up and down to me. As we moved on, the positions become more
Read more

Week 4

           Week three of online zoom yoga practice. The guest teacher for yoga practice this week is Amita Bhagat. Anita showed how to do Iyengar yoga. Its practices in 53 countries and is about finder one’s inner self. It takes six to seven years of practice to become certified at the first level; there are multiple levels to Iyengar yoga. It can be analyzed as a ritual because it is an action that an individual repeats on a schedule, whether that be daily to annually. A ritual consists of certain steps be taken at a specific time; one can think of it like a witch’s spell and of course yoga. According to Nevrin, symbols and props with set rules of interaction are rituals but yoga can be explained also in that way. Iyengar himself used his body as a “test subject,” meaning his body was treated in a way that a scientist would perform tests on a lab subject; a “laboratory” Amita said. He would practice most of his life, after a day of teaching he would then spend ten hours practicing for
Read more