Pre-COVID, when I used to teach in-person yoga classes, I’d often hear, “it was so nice to just zone out and turn my brain off for a while.” While I get the sentiment, in my opinion it’s a little bit contrary to the purpose of yoga.
Yoga means “union,” namely of your physical, mental, and emotional self. When taking class from an esteemed instructor, it’s easy to adopt the mentality of “I’ll just let the instructor think for me, they probably know better than I do anyhow.” But if you’re mentally tuned out, how can you unify your mind with the other elements of your being?
Now that it’s been almost a year since our first corona-related lockdown, and with most yoga studios still closed, it’s clear that digital yoga is here to stay. But some are discouraged when taking a digital class because requires more self-awareness and self-motivation from the practitioner.
When you’re “just not feeling it today,” it’s a lot easier just to turn off your device than it is to walk out of the studio during an in-person class. Also, without an instructor to physically correct the practitioner’s alignment, yoga students are potentially more at risk of injuring themselves while on their mat.
Who is there to inspire you? Who is there making sure you are physically safe? Who is keeping you accountable to showing up on your mat in the first place?
You. That’s it. Just you.
While that might seem intimidating at first, it’s also extremely empowering. It gives you all the control to give create the experience you need, using the digital class as a guide, rather than feeling pressure to “perform well” in class. If you want to be inspired, you must reflect more deeply, and search within yourself to find your aha-moment. Rather than needing to rely on another person to shift your state when you’re in a funk, digital yoga forces you to learn that skill for yourself. It’s like taking the training wheels off your bike.
This process of bringing eureka moments into your life, can be referred to with the Sanskrit word, “samyama.” Digital yoga can be the catalyst for learning this important skill of how to self-generate these moments.
Ultimately, whether your instructor is in-person or digital, you should always be taking the class for yourself, not for anyone else’s benefit. Your own self-practice, self-care, and self-work are always the most important things.
