For years I have been a yoga student listening to instructors chastise students by saying,
"Don't look around, this is Not a competition." The other day I was in a class with Moya Matthews as my yoga instructor. She made a profound statement to counter this.
She said, "Feel free to look around, this is Not a competition!"
This kind of rocked my world. After all of the shame of taking a peek at the person next to me was stripped away, I felt like I had less interest in doing so. Part of my problem is that I'm a "visual learner." When an instructor says things like, "take your left leg and straighten your right foot with your left hand in the air" without any visual demonstrations when I was a true beginner, it was almost impossible for me to get anything "right" without a little look.
Granted, it is still important to not feel jealousy toward the person who is sticking their foot behind their head and to meet each pose as a my new pose every time.
In Monique's class on inversions, I found that watching other people do headstands and listening to the teachers instructions for each person was really helpful. I could look at someone doing headstand, see their evolution with in the pose and then try it on my own. I find that looking, for me, is more helpful than harmful.
ReplyDeleteJust like anything, it is whatever we bring to it. If we feel a compulsion to look, then we should examine what it is inside us that compels us to look. Is it driven by ego, curiosity, desire, fear? I think it can be good to see what is possible for the human body to achieve, and it can be good to admire beauty in others. Looking is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.
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