Why Taking a Workshop Will Take Your Yoga Practice To The Next Level
So many students enjoy taking their weekly yoga class (s) and have felt the benefit from doing so regularly. Although sometimes it is easy to fall into a slump and fall out of routine where we miss our regular yoga practice. Taking a workshop is the perfect way to reignite our interest and passion for yoga and movement. Read on for 5 reasons why a yoga workshop can take your practice to the next level.
1. Revisiting the fundamentals
Many seasoned yoga practitioners attend yoga frequently that their practice progresses and they skillfully work on more challenging poses. Even beginner students once in the mix of regular yoga classes strive to improve on poses that are a challenge or just out of grasp. But as life would have it we always develop little postural habits, nagging injuries or experience discomfort in the body during yoga, or in life. This is normal.
Workshops always take students back to the fundamentals and re-introduce the actions and alignment needed to find steadiness and ease (sthira and sukha) in each posture, and on our journey to doing more challenging postures. Finding our “beginners mind” and working on the foundation, strength, control, and proper placement of the body in simple postures is vital to our success in grander endeavors. Students bulletproof their body by understanding the fundamentals and this helps to avoid injury and discomfort during practice. Workshops always give students a refresher on simple and achievable ideas before progressively building towards the peak of the practice.
2. Breaking through a plateau
Maybe you started practicing yoga and fell in love! You may have found the benefits and improvements in your body and mind plentiful. This “honeymoon” period however may come to an end and your practice may find a plateau. This doesn’t just apply to success in the body and postures. Also our breathing and meditation practice can waiver after a few years of practice.
Taking a workshop and diving into a new idea, or studying with a new teacher can totally mix things up. If we eat the same food with the same spices every day we will surely grow tired of it and find it bland. This is why yoga workshops are essential to expand our experience with new and unique practices that challenge and awaken out body and mind. This is the spice of life and there are so many different methods to achieve a state of yoga (samahdi).
3. Investing in self study
The study of the self is an important part of practicing yoga. It is one of the self-disciplines (niyama) of Patanjali’s 8 fold path called Svadhyaya in Sanskrit. Receiving instruction from teachers give students a entry point to experience yoga, but it is our own self-study that brings these teachings to life so they can bear fruits and joyous experiences can be had.
Taking a workshop is like enrolling in a new program or class in the school of life. We become a student all over again and give our mind the chance to be open and receive new ideas for us to contemplate. Having an open mind and willingness to consistently learn and improve is helpful on our path to yoga.
4. Becoming inspired by what is possible
Workshops also five students the opportunity to see and experience how amazing our body is. We are strong and capable. When our mind is focused on achieving a goal there is endless possibility. This mindset can take our yoga practice to new heights and we might achieve amazing and exhilarating shapes in our body, or find the most blissful and ecstatic state of mind.
Workshops deliver on this by working to help students learn new poses in a safe and progressive way and teachers go over all the details and building blocks needed for students to get there! We might not all be able to achieve advanced yoga poses but a workshop will show us how to modify or practice alternative postures to still find the most wonderful outcomes from our yoga practice.
5. Have a deeper experience.
Every human at some point contemplates the start of the mind. Why am I so anxious? Why did I react so badly from a situation? How come I can’t stop worrying?
Our mind is constantly narrating our experience and reminding us, or “story-telling of our past. Practicing Yoga strives to slowly bring these mental habits to light so we can contemplate the habits and reasons why our mind keeps spinning round and round. The same postural habits play out in the body.
Taking a workshop is an endeavour that takes students further then they might go in a weekly yoga class at a studio, or practicing at home. There is more time spent giving detailed instruction in postures but also breathing and meditation. With more time spent considering breathwork as well as meditative and contemplative practices students often take their practice deeper and have a more wholesome experience of themselves. Going deeper takes time and yoga workshops allot much more time on the subtle energetic aspects, relaxations techniques, and meditation instructions to let students sink into a fully aware state of mind.
Of course, there are so many other amazing benefits to attending yoga workshops! You get to hang out with awesome like-minded people and have a great time practicing yoga all while learning! So if you feel your yoga practice needs a kickstart try signing up for a workshop at your local studio!
This September 2022, Live Yoga is offering 4 unique workshops! Click the link below to learn more!