When yoga first came to the west, a lot of critics said that it wasn't designed for the Occidental (western) body. Yoga was said to be something that was developed around the Indian body and that Westerners could never be so flexible!

It is true that because of different lifestyles, westerners find yoga harder than other cultures would. We sit in chairs constantly, whether at home, in the car, in the office or on the toilet and this sitting shortens the muscles in the legs and hips, causing us to be incredibly stiff and leading to back issues and scaitica etc. Holistically, we hold a lot of emotions in our hips and shoulders and these pent up emotions we cant release, which promotes further stiffness.

All this can be relieved through a regular yoga practice.

BUT!!! and that's a big but, we aren't all designed the same! Our individual bones are different (that includes everyone on the planet). We are lead to believe that bones are bones and they're all the same in everybody, but that just isn't true and it causes a lot of headaches for yoga teachers! It's true! our bodies aren't designed to do certain poses. Some poses we'll find really easy from the get go, others we'll never be able to achieve the same results we see in magazines or DVDs no matter how much we practice! Every experienced yogi/yogini will tell you that they're still seeing changes 15 or 20 years after they started practising and some things they just can't do! As an example.... The lotus position is one of the most famous seated poses and to be able to do it relies on whether you have inwardly or outwardly rotating hips.... and it might still take years to achieve if you've the right kind of hips, but they're really tight from sitting all the time!

Ooh, I digressed! So why does it cause headaches for yoga teachers? Well, you have the people that say they can't do yoga because they aren't flexible enough ( that's like saying you can't take driving lessons because you don't know how to drive!!), but worse than that, there's the over eager student who sees the picture of the pose and tries to emulate it.... causing sprains, cysts, tears, rips and breaks! The most important thing to remember in a yoga class is not to let the ego take over. It doesn't matter how other people look when they're doing the pose compared to how you look. It's about how you FEEL while doing the pose! That sweet ache of a stretching muscle is something that takes a few lessons to get used to and when you get used to it, to feel it is lovely! But we're only concerned with that sweet ache of the stretching muscles and creating space between compressed vertabrae and joints. I often see students trying to get their head on their knee in seated forward bends and their backs are severely bent because they're doing the pose completely wrong, trying really hard to get their heads on their knees! Just because the pose is called "head to knee" ( janu sirsasana ), it doesn't mean you have to be able to get your head on your knee to do the pose properly!! The idea is to get a lovely hamstring stretch or back stretch.... it doesn't make any difference how near to your knee your head is, as long as you're experiencing the stretch in the right place!

And it's the same thing using props like belts, blocks and bricks. There is always one student who feels he doesn't need the props because he's been doing yoga fro a few months now and he's going to the intermediate class! The props serve a purpose no matter what "level" of yoga you feel you're at. I still use props and I'm the teacher!! Ok some styles of yoga don't rely on props, but those styles have other ways of adapting poses. The point is.... All our bodies are different and there should never be competition with others.... only competition with our self and that competition has to be a little compassionate (Bruce Lee as an example was an incredibly focused athelete, but ultimately he died because he didn't know when to stop.)

The other point is, if you start a pose the right way and you practice it compassionately everyday, no matter where you started, you will get a little better. But if you start with the wrong intention, you will only hurt yourself in the long run.

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