Why I Do Yoga

When I was finishing my dissertation eight years ago, I sat in a lousy office chair for way too many hours a day. Unsurprisingly, my back hurt all the time.  When I told my mom, she suggested I try some yoga.  I had done classes with her a few years earlier and dug them, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.  I added in about ten minutes a day of basic asanas (poses) into my existing workout routine.

Within three days, my back pain was gone.

Today, sometimes I get questions about why I do so much yoga, and I have made it a point not to make my answer more complicated than it needs to be.  My first answer to that question is always, "Without it, my back would hurt."  All the other amazing, profound, monumental changes the practice has made in my life flow from that first truth.

Which is why the latest New York Times' trolling of yogis is kind of funny.

Can you get hurt doing yoga?  Yes and no.

On one hand, DUH.  If you're in a contemporary American yoga class, you're probably very interested in the fitness aspects of the practice, so you're pushing your body to do things with which it is not entirely comfortable.  Combine that with the general Type A-ness of our culture.  Gee, do you think there's a chance you might try a handstand before you have the necessary form and strength and ufck up your shoulder?  I did.

On the other hand, if you hurt yourself doing yoga, 

A wise woman and fantastic teacher always tells her students to do less, as any yoga instructor worth her salt will do.  Part of the practice of yoga is learning the limits of your body and where the line is that separates an honest and wonderful effort to improve your physical being from a destructive desire to hit a pose regardless of the consequences, damn the torpedoes GRRRR.  Once you're into that mentality, you're not doing yoga.

I look around at other yogis in class more than I probably should.  These days, I find myself most interested in watching those yogis who I know have been practicing for years but have (l)earned the humility and good judgement to know when to come out of a pose and/or curl up in a little ball.  Child's Pose might be the most important pose for our way-too-busy, way-too-aggressive society to practice.  Going with the flow and accepting your limitations is at the heart of yoga.

And the good news is, the more you learn to do that, the more poses you actually can hit, so you'll look hot too.

Coming tomorrow: why, if I were a NYT editor, I would troll yogis too.