Observation & Attention are the Greatest Tools to Enrich your Practice

Observation & Attention are the Greatest Tools to Enrich your Practice. A healthy sense of self-awareness doesn’t just apply to our mind or emotional intelligence but also extends to our physical form and patterns of movement. Focused observation and education-rich attention paired with curiosity opens doors to new arenas rich with awareness. Time in practice is an opportunity. We enlarge our experience when we answer the call to step outside the rigid and let go of comparisons and unhelpful constructs. Stepping into flexibility and the freedom of allowing our own unique anatomical elements and movement history lead us on the mat and off! Let’s explore!

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Variety within Similar Structures

The human body is made up fluid, tissue, and bone (to oversimplify the matter) and all are made of these basic compounds. This fundamental ‘sameness’ doesn’t equate to carbon copy bodies though. Our shared ingredients are expressed in billions of dazzling varieties. The dimensions of our structural elements differ greatly especially in the size of bones and joints. These variations are further influenced by our own distinct physical movement histories. What we have done before, our existing level of flexibility, and past injuries or trauma will influence and impact how we move, our movement expectations, what we perceive is possible, and in some instances what may be physically out of reach.

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The Myth of Normal

Normal is a nice idea that never did exist. The ability of several or even a majority of individuals being able to create an asana in a specific way doesn’t make that approach normal or even correct. Holding to the myth of normal can interfere with experiencing what’s real for you (or if teaching, what’s real for your yoga students). I propose that there is value in stepping back from what an asana ‘should look like’ and moving forward sans assumptions to examine how in fact any certain individual experiences it. This shift creates a gap to gather information instead of endorsing or transferring an ‘idea’ without individualized observation. Grasping the distinct influencing factors in positioning can lead us toward taking bone structure and the like into account when listening to a teacher or teaching ourselves. We can avoid overarching instructions or commands such as ‘put the heels down’ which can be easily misconstrued leaving individuals unable to perform the action potentially susceptible to self-blame or feeling a sense of something being wrong with them. Negative ideas about our bodies functioning do not serve to furthering the beauty of all that is to explore in our personal practice of yoga.

The Value of Trust

Attending classes with the same teacher, like seeing the same doctor, creates a relational history together. Where you can say you have ‘felt heard’ grows trust. This bond can make it easier for you to embrace challenges safely and also to exercise your voice when something doesn’t feel right or you are not ready to extend further etc. Choosing professionals who have healthy boundaries and who act in a way that acknowledges your right to agency is excellent fertile ground for reaping the relational benefits available through actively trusting the other. *Let’s not forget that we often have to work past our own wounding to re-learn and regain our sense of trust in ourselves. Releasing negative or destructive self-talk while embracing our intuition and honoring our own innate sense of ‘enough’ affirms trust.

When to say ‘No’

Resisting well-meaning advice can be a challenge for even the most confident and self assured individuals. Cultivating the firm strength to act in accordance with what you are feeling on the mat is something that requires permission. Give yourself permission to say ‘no’ when something doesn’t feel right. Raising your awareness of your mind, body, connection along with a consideration of environmental factors which often play a part of their own takes practice. Remember this doesn’t just apply in class or with others but also when alone. Injuries don’t just happen when there is peer pressure or pressure from someone with the professional power of an ‘expert’. They often take place when we tell ourselves we have it or we did it yesterday so we can do it today. One should aim to never replace daily self awareness or self observation with regime or habit. Cultivating our own power of self-observation is like practicing our own superpower. It stands to serve us well so we remain adaptable, and honest in taking into account the ‘now’ of where we are.

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I know you’ve heard it but do you believe that you are your own best teacher?

Any peer or expert can encourage and instruct to ‘push through’, ‘go further’, ‘buck up’. But only you know when following external advice is not honoring to your inner experience and bodily sensation.

Who is the Expert?

Good news! You, my dear, are the expert. Not your teacher, not your best friend, not your partner, no one knows you like you. Unique is not cliche it’s solid gold truth. So shine it up and let your differences glow!

Yoga is not about being best in class or even competing with ourselves. It is about staying in conversation with ourselves. Digging in when the time is right, leaving a pose when the time is right, tuning in, mindfulness, understanding one’s body, and acceptance without judgment. Basically. yoga is cultivating an art of reveling in the now.

Empowerment Through Education

Educating ourselves to what is inherent in the body and the wide-range of function possible creates a pathway to empower ourselves and others granting permission to work from exactly where we are at; physically or emotionally/mentally. Free yourself to experience you as you are.

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Desiring to attune your awareness?

Learn how to reject forcing your body into shapes or shapes onto your body that aren’t appropriate and how to own and accept the variation that defines you.

  • Benefit from one-on-one eyes and attention

  • Personalized feedback that empowers your practice or teaching

  • Anatomical principles that will guide movement

  • Practice your voice and connect with the ‘why’ behind movement cues

  • Timed instruction with the goal of space to play, experiment and feel things out in between

Discover this and more in my new course: Basics is the New Advanced. Contact me to find out more or read more here.

Not ready for a course? That’s completely okay. Sign up for my mailing list to receive an e-booklet guide to ‘Align Your Cues’ a closer examination of what alignment intentions are in 3 poses and why I propose they deserve recognition.



Enhancing practice through education that elevates.

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Photography Credit: Shaun Jones

Arielena Reed