At the end of one of my yoga classes I asked students how they felt they had improved. As I went around the room, one student said her flexiblity had improved, another said she felt much stronger, another reported an ability to reduce work stress through using the breath, and another reported a deeper awareness to their emotions and actions. I was surprised when one student said she felt she hadn’t improved at all. When I explored how she felt, she said, “I’ve been doing yoga with you for seven years and it’s still hard for me. It doesn’t seem to get easier.” At the time, I responded in a simple way, saying that I noticed improvement, and that each day is a different day. Somedays yoga can be harder depending on the day.
Later that evening I reflected on what I said and felt my answer didn’t really embrace how I truly felt. For me I look at yoga as an analogy for life. The more we work through challenges the more we grow and the better we feel. If you’re able to be in the moment through connecting with your breath, the energy within and around you then you have YOGA. Improvement isn’t obtaining postures, it’s improving who you are and how you feel. Anyone who has taken a yoga class will learn something, and to me this means you are growing and thus improving.-Sara Holliday MFT, CPT