Yoga

I have been debating the whole new yoga centre thing for the last couple of weeks and today I finally went to try out a class at what I believe will probably be my yoga centre for the coming year. It is a beautiful centre, in a high-rise block, like most other yoga centres in Hong Kong, spread over 2 floors. The staff are friendly and polite and everyone removes their shoes before entering. Pretty much what I'm used to so far.

It has I think 3 studios, again, given my experience with yoga centres in Ottawa, sounds about right and a bonus for me, there is no hot studio :-) I don't have to feel like I "should" do a hot class every so often, just because it's there...just because I don't really want to but surely it's good for me, so I should...there's that word again... Anyway...no hot studio and I'm happy with that, I don't feel like I am losing out at all.

The changing facilities are just beautiful. Nicer than we have in our apartment. OK so there are more people queuing up to use them but really, very nice and clean and a pleasure to use. They even provide towels for your personal use so you don't have to remember to take one and neither do you have to lug it home and wash it afterwards. They have hairdryers, lots of them. Wow. Now I am really impressed. To be fair, I know that other centres here do all this stuff too...it seems to be the norm and I like it. Having said all that, of course these things are great but the most important thing(s) in any yoga centre, are of course the teachers. Are their classes empowering, compassionate, safe but challenging and do they leave you feeling relaxed and open? At least these are the things I ask of a yoga class, other people may have other criteria, but for me these are the most important things.

So I am led to my complimentary class. I chose a Hatha Yoga class and the receptionist insisted that I try a Beginner class the first time. Fine with me...it's been a while since I attended an actual yoga class with all the travelling and disruption to my lifestyle recently. A beginners class actually sounds perfect.

They ask that you don't take your own mat as they provide them for you and when you enter the immaculate, mirrored room their black mats are all perfectly positioned and almost gleaming with cleanliness! Another pleasant surprise. The mats are staggered so that when we stretch we don't have to hold hands with our neighbours and everyone gets a decent view of the teacher. They have beautifully rolled hand towels placed in little pigeon holes, bit like mail slots for each student to claim and take back to their mat, in case they should perspire during their practice. It's all terribly organised. Yogically, I'm not used to this but again, I like it.

Before we begin our teacher asks if anyone is pregnant. There are a few girlish giggles but nobody owns up. He asks again - apparently he was told there was a pregnant lady in the room...nope, nobody confesses. We are about to begin when another student enters..a woman..immediately he asks her if she is pregnant...she looks a bit shocked but yes..finally, he has found his special student and I have to say, she did get a lot of attention. And I know this because she was directly in front of me. I'm not sure she wanted quite that much attention but the teacher was quite adamant about what she should and should not do. There was more hands-on assisting and adjusting in that classroom than I'd experienced in any other class. Ever. It was quite an experience.

My own practice has changed recently. Not least because a lot of things in my life have changed and my practice has adapted but also because I did some training with Paul Grilley. I am going to go "all out" and say that this was for me, the best training I have ever taken. I learned lots. The teaching was compassionate but fun. A lot of fun...lots of laughs, laughing that helped lift us up from the intensity of learning and remind us that we are all human. It was a fabulous 2 weeks and instrumental to how I now practice yoga. To be honest, it's not that I do it completely differently now...I was always leaning towards this style but now I understand why I prefer to practice this way and I've become somewhat reluctant to practice it any other way.

Then came my class today. I expected it to challenge my own beliefs about yoga teaching and it did. I respect that there are many different styles and ways of teaching yoga out there. There are so many teachers with different bodies, and different backgrounds, it is only natural. What I'm looking for is a Paul Grilley yoga centre in Hong Kong but I'm not sure there is such a thing. Yet. Or maybe there is and I haven't found it yet! For now though, my internal debate goes on.

Is my personal practice too compassionate?

It certainly became more compassionate over the summer with the onset of a couple of different injuries and aches and pains. To practice yoga at all for a while I had to take it extremely easily. For a while I stuck purely with restorative yoga and gradually progressed back to hatha and yin - my preferred styles but the pace was slower and gentler than it had been before the injuries. I was worried I would injure myself again if I did too much too soon. Then came the Grilley training, right on the back of my recovery. I eased back into my yin (and yang) practice over those 2 weeks and it felt wonderful. It felt safe. It felt like MY yoga, for MY body. I returned to Canada, feeling New and Healed, it was fabulous.

Now though, I'm not in Canada...I'm in Hong Kong. Life is different. The culture is different. My days are wide open, waiting to be filled. I'm free like I have never been free before. To try something new. To do nothing. It's my choice. Seems ironic in a country where nobody seems to have free time, where they are always dashing to the next appointment.

Of course, I want to try something new, I'm just not sure what yet.

While I wait for this decision to evolve, I do know that I want to practice yoga, with a teacher, in a studio. It's been a while since I had any regular guidance on my own practice. However, finding a teacher who truly resonates for me these days is not as easy as it used to be. How do you know you can trust them with your body? My body is not as young as it used to be and needs more care than it used to. I've learned how to care for it over the years I've been practicing yoga but I also have an insight into how easily we can harm ourselves, even through our own yoga practice if we are not truly present within that practice. I've also heard horror stories about teachers who try and force their students into postures that their bodies are just not built to accommodate. I guess like anyone else in any other country, I go to class, I evaluate my experience and decide whether that teacher is for me or not. It's that simple.

They say that the teacher shows up when you're ready...nobody ever said you'd seek that teacher out and love them to bits for eternity...learning can be challenging in many ways. Perhaps it is time for me to allow another teacher to take me to my edge. It's probably about time. 2009 has been quite tough, personally, and my refuge has often been yoga. Gentle yoga. Compassionate yoga. More compassionate than ever. Perhaps in order to make the most of this year ahead, I need to be taken to my edge on a more regular basis...stepping away from the comfortable poses of old and just see where I end up.