Stress Relief Yoga

[logisticslad]

My gym buddy and I tried a second yoga class last night called Stress Relief Yoga. In this class, everyone sat in a circle and the instructor created a kind of ritual space within which we were supposed to relax and meditate. Then we did some of the poses at a much slower pace and level of intensity than in the other class. The positions actually felt easy to do after our three weeks of experience in the other class. I felt like this instructor had something to teach, but that I wasn't interested in learning it from her. I didn't connect with her teaching style and I felt like I had been participating in a ritual without my full consent. I am much more comfortable with a more athletic, physically demanding approach to yoga through which I can choose to concentrate on the spiritual aspects or not at my option. That's actually very similar to my approach to dancing. While I'm aware that I am resistant to the spiritual/meditative aspect of yoga, I don't think that I'll return to this class any time soon. I feel like I got what the class offers, but that it wasn't for me.

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[jaidit.livejournal.com]

There was an essay in the Los Angeles Times Magazine recently in which the writer made some observations about her yoga class in Los Angeles. She described the instructor as a small Indian woman who would occasionally admonish her class: "There is no such thing as Power Yoga."

When I went to India, I passed by chance the Osho Yoga Center. Lots of westerners in red robes there. The grad student showing me around was a bit embarrassed because the Osho Center does a bit of Tantric Yoga. But, be it Tantric Yoga or Hatha Yoga, it is a meditative practice.