My yoga studio, Grateful Yoga, is trying something new this summer: a broad teaching theme that everyone weaves into their classes in some way. The hypothesis is simply that repetition is necessary for sustained learning. A single inspired class might be revelatory, but is unlikely to create durable change. Perhaps if there's a consistent through-line of inquiry, and progress is more apparent, there will also be more motivation to practice consistently. I'll report back at the end of summer about how it went.
What is our theme, you ask? Movement.
A study and celebration of all the ways that humans can move themselves across the earth, with a particular emphasis on walking and balance. But also: rolling, crawling, squatting, getting up and down, maybe even a bit of jumping. Still plenty of classic yoga poses, but also movement exercises, anatomy lessons, walking meditations, etc.
Are we becoming a functional movement studio? A natural movement studio? Sometimes I am tempted... but I keep coming back to (my version of) yoga's basic proposition: the mind and body are inseparable, as are humans and world, as are the sacred and the profane. I have the best chance of healing/awakening if I work with all my human dimensions together, rather than parcel them out to different specialists.
Or rather, I can benefit tremendously from specialists, but in the end it is only I who can figure out how to incorporate all the expert advice into my unique ecosystem.
The ritual container of a yoga practice is a means to systematically reveal the literal and metaphorical connective tissues that hold me together, to unbind what is inappropriately adhered, and to rebind what has become too loosely held. In earlier eras, the goal was to disconnect from delusion and join with divinity (still a beautiful aim for those who feel called). In the modern psychologized West, the yoga ritual now supports healing and self-actualization (and goats?)
Whatever our intentions, WALKING is a particularly rich phenomenon to study through the yoga process. Our gait arises from the confluence of countless factors: the evolutionary history of our species, how we learned to walk, parents and guardians who we unconsciously imitated, cultural ideals for how we should move, what shoes we've worn, what kind of furniture we sit in, what joints we've sprained, our nervous system state, the weather and our reaction to it... On and on. How we walk has a much longer history that how we do Triangle Pose, and a much bigger effect on our daily life.
For what does it take to change how I walk? It's not as simple as just following a few tips from Internet experts, is it? Especially with a highly-integrated movement pattern like walking, any discrete change I attempt will create new stresses elsewhere that call for yet more adjustment, etcetera.
As an example, I offer an excerpt from my own ongoing somatic experiments:
Maybe 15 years ago, I noticed I was walking with my feet turned out1. I began to deliberately align my feet straight ahead as I walked the dog, travelled from car to studio, stood in line. I quickly realized this required my hips to internally rotate a bit more than was my habit. I would do this for a few weeks, forget about it for a month, then remember and try again. After many rounds of this, the habit seemed to solidify and my natural gait felt more fluid and balanced than before. Success?
One day, my left knee started making a weird clicking sound when going up the stairs. No pain, just a disturbing snap at random moments. Over many months and with the help of a bodyworker, I figured out that I was slumping my left ankle inwards and tensing my left hip rotators, which created transient constriction in my knee. This was happening due to spraining my ankle in college, as well as failing to adjust my pelvic tilt to match my new leg and foot orientation. Once I shifted my pelvic tilting habit and micro-adjusted my foot positioning, my lower body felt much happier... but then my hip flexors and upper back had to figure out how to work with the new spinal curves. My hip flexors seem to be convinced that they are responsible for controlling my anger, so now the limiting pattern may be the alignment of my psyche. On and on it goes.
Please don't be fooled by the linear form of this short example. The actual story is even more convoluted, and to recount it would risk the tedium of listening to someone's dreams.
In fact, the slow work of repatterning the bodymind has much in common with dreams. We intuit subterranean connections that sound absurd if we try to explain them to a doctor. One thing seems to stand in for another: "Somehow I knew the shoulder tension was actually my frustrated ambitions." Paths loop back on themselves, leaving us where we started.
We are not tidy mechanical systems where A=B, despite online promises of "Three Poses for Hip Pain". I understand the pragmatic appeal of these simplistic formulations from a marketing perspective, but I think it fundamentally does a disservice to yoga. Because no, you probably aren't going to fix your hip pain by practicing a single sequence. Maybe you get temporary relief, but you keep sitting at the same cramped desk and thinking the same angry thoughts, and eventually the pain returns.
But what's the alternative message?
"Three Poses to Open A Rabbit Hole of Self-Inquiry Where You Feel Better but Also Sometimes Worse and Often Mystified?"
That would be far more honest, but not a great way for a studio to pay the rent.
To be sure, for the right ailment a course of physical therapy can be super effective, especially in the case of recent injury. But no insurance is willing to pay for PT long enough to really follow all the branching pathways of causation that give rise to a particular imbalance. No amount of massage or chiropractic can do it either. Only I, the individual living in this unique life, have the time, incentive and inner knowing to follow the dream logic of the bodymind.
I started teaching in 2005 as the yoga wave was building towards its peak of mass appeal. New students were streaming in the doors, many practicing multiple times a week. Now, I sense the wave has passed. Students who were mainly captivated by the physical challenge of asana have moved on to other formats: HIIT training, barre classes, boxing, even pole dancing! Anyone seeking a good workout has endless options online, many free. I find myself wondering: what is the role of a yoga studio now?
In light of my reflections above, I would posit that yoga studios remain uniquely positioned to serve those undertaking the messy work of changing how they walk through life2.
For one, the techniques and metaphors of yoga are well-suited to a thorough exploration of the interconnected self. Working through the basic postures systematically calls awareness to every joint and muscle of the body, especially if done with that intention. Breathing practices can acquaint us with the nervous system. Savasana and yoga nidra shine light on the subterranean realms. Meditation brings us into greater intimacy with the conscious mind and its wiley ways. A multidimensional approach for the multidimensional human creature.
Alongside all that, which can also come from personal practice, a group yoga class provides vital affirmation that such a process is worthwhile. I cannot overstate the importance of this. It gets lonely traversing the winding trails of a human life, especially as injury, illness or existential doubt take us off prescribed or expected routes. Keeping company with fellow seekers reminds us we’re not crazy. Something more than the status quo is possible. That “something more” might be relief from pain and anxiety, greater vitality, deeper insight, connection to Spirit. We can’t walk anyone else’s path, but it’s sure nice to gather with fellow travellers from time to time, compare notes, laugh at the impossibility of the task.
Yoga studio as waystation, then, or trading post. Provisions, advice and good company before heading back out into the storm. I can’t think of another cultural form that meets quite the same need3.
I once heard it said that in ancient times, a few select aspirants would seek initiation into the Mysteries through extensive training and harrowing trials, á la the Greek cults of Orpheus. Now, thanks to every-accelerating Global Weirding, we are all automatically “opted in” to the initiation process just by being born. We face the Mystery at every turn, no magical rites needed. The question feels increasingly urgent: how can I best walk through these times?
The yoga of walking begins by asking not “how should I walk?” but rather, “what is it like to walk just now?” What does it feel like just now, moving over the earth, through this life of mine? Then: what happens when I make one small change? What else moves in me as I move through space?
Attending closely, following cause and effect, we start to map the disparate threads that weave together and create our experience. It’s the work of a lifetime to follow them, unweaving and reweaving as inner and outer worlds change. Luckily, all we need take -- all we can take -- is the next step that’s right in front of us.
If you’d like to join my summer inquiry into human movement, my classes are available live on Zoom or by timeshifted recording, as well as live in the studio. Mondays 10a + Saturdays 12:15p.
If you’d like a walking companion to join you for a stretch of your wandering, I am available for individual sessions of shared wayfinding. You might call it yoga therapy, or yoga coaching, but neither of those terms is quite right. I can offer a blend of practical yoga techniques and facilitated self-inquiry, customized to suit your particular path - or help you discover a path if none if can be found. Please email me if you’d like to set up a call and discuss a possible expedition, even if it’s just the short journey from your mind to your body!
Not a universal recommendation, as some folks have femur shapes that make slightly turned out feet a more balanced choice. It’s complicated! For an introduction to some basic ideas about walking, see: https://anyasreviews.com/how-to-walk-correctly-guide-to-natural-gait/
I mean that literally and metaphorically. In fact when it comes to the bodymind, these two are not so distinct, as described above.
Maybe spiritually-oriented tai chi or qi gong classes?