Sunday, October 21, 2012

Lesley University Center Yoga


Manli Nouri
Professor Douglass
22 October 2012
Midterm Paper
Lesley University Yoga
            For my midterm project, I attended the yoga class that Lesley University offers every Tuesday night.  Since there was not much information provided with what kind of yoga was practiced there, I was not able to research and prepare myself for it beforehand.  At the end of class, however, I go the chance to talk to the instructor, Maria Hudson, for a few minutes and found out that the type of yoga that we had practiced was called vinyasa yoga.
            It was located in the studio at Stebbins on main campus.  There were some students there early, sitting on yoga matts that were provided.  Not everyone was there, however.  A few showed up after the class started, with some walking in in the middle of class.  Even though the area was not spacious, the room was filled with college students by the end of the class.  The class was made up of a diverse group of college students.  It was easy to see in some that it was their first time doing yoga, whereas in others it was easy to see that they had been doing yoga for some time.
Since this was not a yoga studio, there was nothing yoga related in the studio.  There was a net and some chairs at one end of the room.  The walls were green and white and had the word “lynx” and a paw drawn on them.  Except for the mirror in front of the room, the walls were mostly bare.  The students were lined up in two rows behind one another, facing the mirror and the instructor stood, with her mat placed sideways, with her back to the mirror, facing the students.  As late students began to come in, they went and stood besides the teacher.  Besides the last minute or two of yoga, the studio was lit.
            The instructor started promptly at seven o’clock, however, that did not mean the talking stopped.  She spent a good portion of the beginning of class focusing on breathing.  It was different than Yoga: Theory, Culture, and Practice, because she did not keep asking us to focus on where our mind was wondering off to while we were breathing, instead we were told to just focus on our breathing.  She also told us to promise to ourselves to focus on our breathing throughout yoga that night.  She then “warmed up” every part of our body by telling us to do simple motions, such as circling our necks or stretching our legs.  At first I did not understand why we had to get warmed up, but by the end of the session I did.
            Vinyasa yoga is much different than I had become accustomed to practicing in this course.  Vinyasa is a very similar type of yoga as compared to ashtanga yoga that was created by K. Pattabhi Jois.  Ashtanga is a rigid and very rule-based type of yoga. It has six series of poses that one must accomplish.  However, these poses must be accomplished in an order.  Someone cannot start mastering a pose in series two if they have not first mastered the pose in the first series.  Therefor, this is very hard to accomplish, having only a few people today that have mastered all six levels.  Vinyasa seems to be more of a freestyle form of ashtanga.  It takes the poses from ashtanga but from all different series, not just starting at the first and moving up from there, but mixing them all together (“Om Shanti: A Yoga Blog,” 2007).  
This type of yoga puts a great emphasis on breathing.  Each pose is followed by a breath, making the movements not only more rapid and intense, but also more dance-like.  The synchronized breathing gave the movements a flow, which is why this type of yoga is also referred to as flow yoga or vinyasa flow yoga.  Vinyasa is literally translated from Sanskrit to meaning “connection” and after practicing vinyasa yoga, it made sense that it was called that because there was a clear connection linking all the poses together and giving it a smooth flow (“Vinyasa Yoga - Flow Yoga," 2012).
            During the class, the instructor instructed us to get into a downward facing dog, then into a high pushup, low pushup, upward dog, and lastly back to a downward facing dog.  We started out spending a good amount of time in each pose.  However, as the class continued, the movements became more like a flow and more vigorous.  Now, instead of staying in the poses, we were instructed to either exhale or inhale into the next pose with the same pattern of starting and ending with the downward facing dog position as before.  During this part of class, as people’s strengths were challenged and it became harder to keep a pose, the room was filled with people’s giggles and laughter.  This did not seem to upset the instructor as she started laughing herself.  As she saw some people could not hold the pose, she showed the class a way that seemed easier to do some of the poses.  She said that the worst thing was to not do it at all.  Therefore, to do the easier version was much better than not doing it at all.
            The cat crawl and sun salutation poses were also worked into the flow.  At one point we stopped doing the “flow” and started the cat crawl and inhaling and raising our necks then exhaling and dropping out head down.  We practiced uttanasana and flat back many times in between the flows.  We also lunged many times and came into the warrior 1 and 2 positions throughout the session.
            During the last few minutes of class, the lights were turned off and it became more quite.  We were told to lie down and close our eyes.  This lasted for only about a minute and then we were instructed to turn to our sides and sit up.  She ended the class with an Ohm and then by saying “The light within you is the light within me. Namaste.”  Then everyone thanked the instructor and left. After the class had ended, I got a few minutes to talk to the instructor but she had to go so I did not get to ask some questions that I had. From those few minutes, the only information I gathered was that she was a student, absolutely loved yoga and seemed like a very relaxed person overall.
            In general, as compared to hatha yoga, Vinyasa gave me more of a physical workout.  I was sweating at the end of class, whereas I am never sweating at the end of hatha.  In this sense, hatha seemed more of a beginner’s class, whereas vinyasa seemed more vigorous.  Since this was a class for college students it made sense that the instructor did not refer to a certain pose by its real name, or at least until towards the end, but rather refer to it by its translated equivalent in English.  For example, instead of saying chaturanga, she would say get into a low pushup so that everyone was able to understand.  Also, unlike the hatha yoga that’s practiced in the course, there was music.  She played meditative music from before the class started until the session was over, which made it more soothing and relaxing.  However, I found hatha yoga to be much more relaxing than vinyasa yoga.  Hatha seemed to move at a much slower pace and seemed to concentrate more on mastering the pose.  Vinyasa seemed to primarily focus on breathing and keeping up a flow.  By the end of each hatha class in the course, during the deep relaxation part where we are all lying down, I am so relaxed that I fall asleep every single time and wake up feeling more energized and fully relaxed.  However, at the end of the vinyasa class, even though she had turned off the lights and soothing music was playing, I was not relaxed at all.  I do not know whether it was because in the course we talk through relaxing every part of our body or it had to do with how rigorous vinyasa yoga was as compared to hatha, but I could not fall asleep no matter how hard I tried.  It also may have had to do with the fact that we only had about a minute to lie down whereas in class it seems like we get more time.  I also think that hatha yoga is more relaxing because my eyes are closed for most of the class, whereas in vinyasa I found it almost impossible to close my eyes because I had to either see what was next or I was moving into another pose.
What I found interesting was that I did not think that we meditated at all during the class, but at the end found out that we had meditated throughout the session.  Meditating can be looked at in different ways.  One way it is practiced in yoga, not specifically vinyasa yoga, is with your mind (“Om Shanti: A Yoga Blog,” 2007).  When we were first walked through the flow, all I could think about was the amount of pain I was in and how I could not hold the pose for much longer.  However, after some time I took in the pain and observed what it was doing to me and where my mind was going, which I had learned from the course.  This helped me hold the pose for longer and not laugh about how weak I was, but instead concentrate.  This concentration gave me relaxation and was much more rewarding than concentrating on the pain and wanting to stop.
I was content with my choice in attending this yoga session. It was a different type of yoga as compared to the one practiced in class and a new and rewarding experience. Ever since this center opened in 2010, it has served many college students and I am certain has made a difference in most of their lives, I know it did in mine. Although I do not know much about different types of yoga, I can say that due to this new experience, I am much more open to trying new types and becoming more involved in learning about the different types of yoga.
Works Cited
"Om Shanti: A Yoga Blog." Om Shanti: A Yoga Blog. N.p., 10 Jan. 2007. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <http://yogaisforlovers.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/what-is-vinyasa-flow-yoga/>.
"Vinyasa Yoga - Flow Yoga." About.com Yoga. N.p., 17 June 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <http://yoga.about.com/od/typesofyoga/a/vinyasa.htm>.

1 comment:

  1. Yoga is also helpful for kids but with some precautions...

    ReplyDelete