After practicing yoga for a few years, I started to branch out and attend workshops and conferences to expand my knowledge of yoga in all its forms. It was fun to go to a class and feel like a beginner again. Learning new styles and experiencing new teachers was not only fun, but it deepened my yoga practice. I suppose it encouraged me to define what yoga meant to me. After stumbling across a variety of viewpoints and perspectives on yoga, I was confronted with the reality that I had to choose one for myself.
- Is your practice feeling stale?
- Are you feeling like your practice isn’t bringing you what you originally hoped it would?
- Is your practice focused too much on the physical?
- Are you feeling like you need a change?
If you answered yes to any of these, why not explore a bit? Try a new style of yoga, attend a workshop or a conference, take a class with a different teacher, embark on a formal study of the Yoga Sutras or other definitive yoga text, or perhaps sign up for a teacher training. I find that every instance I explore the world of yoga, I learn a little something more. I see things in a new way. I change the way I relate to my practice. You can do the same — whether you’ve never practiced yoga before or you’ve been practicing for years.
Just remember one thing — keep it fun and playful when you’re exploring. Go easy on yourself as you take beginner missteps and embrace the joy of being a beginner that concentrates more on being rather than knowing.
