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Day 5: Who Says?!

Margaret Kruszewska

MS_Anusara_day5.jpgA yoga class can be a place where students, especially female students, may experience issues around authority, self-authority, and their bodies. Certainly I have, when stepping into a class and placing myself onto my yoga mat in front of a yoga teacher I do not know, whom, I hope, will know how to work with my limitations.

We (and I include the yoga instructor here) arrive with our own histories of injuries, painful or pleasurable body experiences, messages swirling in our heads from the media, lovers, old gym teachers or a track coach, body trainer or medical doctor.

Over time, as we deepen our own intuitive voice through yoga and mediation, these voices diminish, and we trust ourselves to know when to be guided deeper into a yoga pose, or when to rest. This is developing self-authority based on accepting the realization that you know your body best.

I am only writing about this because during the last few days of Anusara Yoga, I experienced many moments of knowing I had to stop myself from trying to do a posture my body was not prepared to do. The teacher cajoles and I want to oblige and sometimes it feels like entering into a new and unfamiliar territory that is actually surprisingly wonderful as I experience strength or courage or stamina beyond what I thought capable. But other times it’s that slight twitch of a muscles that later turns into an ache and sometimes even an injury that will require a chiropractic or acupuncture treatment.

A yoga class that benefits you is one where you develop this ability to listen to your true self – which is the center of your own authority so that when faced with an unfamiliar outside authority, we can still “hear” our own truth.

Six Days of Intense Anusara Yoga

[tags]anusara, yoga practice, yoga postures,meditation[/tags]

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