Eclectic Yoga

I like to dabble around with different yoga teachers and styles. I'm not into sticking to one thing and calling it the best. With just about everything, there are tons of different styles and techniques. People like to latch on to one and call that the best while putting down all the others. There is no perfect yoga style and there is no perfect yoga teacher. That's why I love to learn what I can from as many people as possible and then put together my favorite elements of each.

I don't like labeling one style or the other as the best because different styles are good for different people. Ashtanga yoga caught my attention because it's very high energy and vigorous, which is great to help pull me off of the couch or out of bed. Someone in my teacher training just gave a presentation on yoga for eating disorders. Ashtanga would be terrible for them because they already overexercise and need a calm, quiet, slow yoga practice.

As I was setting up my yoga class at work (before I started teaching it), someone asked me what style I'm teaching. I stumbled to figure out how to describe it. I had never thought of how to label it. I guess "hatha flow" can describe it in a very broad way to answer the question.

The yoga teacher training that I'm nearly finished with is taught by Iyengar teachers, but it's not an Iyengar training. They admit their bias, but embrace all styles. I really like that a lot. There's no need for style rivalry in yoga, but it happens all the time. Of course all of their teaching is based on Iyengar, since that's what they know, but it's great that they don't try to force their bias onto their students.

My practice has always been vinyasa flow. It's been Ashtanga and Ashtanga-based vinyasa for the last 8 months, and I love it. Ashtanga is what you do when you outgrow "regular vinyasa" and are ready for something deeper and harder.

This is why I wrote my thesis paper for yoga school about Ashtanga yoga. It was my way of bridging my personal practice with my teacher training. I was struggling to learn as much as I could about Ashtanga on my own while learning all about Iyengar yoga.

So now I'm starting to learn a bit of Anusara yoga. It started with a 4 part workshop on assisting in yoga poses. That's something that isn't covered by the teacher training, and I think it's an important skill for a yoga teacher to have. It was taught by an Anusara teacher, so naturally he taught it from an Anusara perspective. I really enjoyed the class and am comfortable adjusting students now. I still feel a little awkward adjusting men, especially at work, but I'll have to get over that.