Too intense?

This is a photo of BKS Iyengar with Raya, providing support so he can fall back into Urdva Dhanurasana. Raya was at Yoga Centre Toronto in honour of BKS 100th birthday, as well as the official opening of the new Centre. He studied with BKS from the age of 10, and continues to teach at Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) located in Pune, Maharashtra. Students come from all over the world to take classes at RIMYI, and Raya also travels the world to share the teachings of his guruji.

This morning I watched Raya demonstrate similar support to teachers and teachers in training at the YCT workshop I was attending. To help them into the pose, and help them understand how to help others into the pose.

The last three days, in fact, I spent in a workshop with Raya. However, if I could have gotten someone to take my place at the beginning of this yoga intensive this weekend I surely would have. I have been in a bit of a fog since my mom died at the end of August. I wasn't sure if I was up to an intensive, but having paid the price of admission last July, I pushed myself to attend.

This was not my first workshop with Raya, I also attended in 2014. This time the workshop was very different, indeed. It seemed as if there were no lesson plan, it was improvised on the spot. Influenced by the students' and teachers' needs and conundrums as they presented themselves.

Friday night was probably the most intense, with Raya admitting it is to the teacher's advantage to tire everyone from the very beginning. I certainly tired. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here. Why am I doing this or trying to do this to my body? O my god I can't believe how much I'm sweating. Is Raya teaching to only the top 2% in the room? What the hell is he doing to us? Someone is going to get hurt! I slept well that night, in fact overslept and was late the next morning.

Raya was honest, saying he could teach us nothing in three days, not really knowing us or our abilities, he could only show and share some of the things he had learned from his teacher. Yoga isn't only theoretical, it must be learned by doing.

Saturday morning was also physically demanding. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning there was a lot more talk, of teaching, of the structure of advanced flow designed and shared by Iyengar in Light on Yoga.

Extend your expansions and expand your extensions.
Find the breathability of the pose.
Balance stability and comfort (Sthira Sukham Asanam).
Don't just focus on opening up the chest - so much more needs to happen in a pose.
There are lessons to be learned when holding the pose past the point of tiring.
Don't rely too much on timers, use them, but judiciously. (Or you will have an alarming practice)

Uttanna = intense. Take it to your limit. Pick a pose and meet it daily and often over a period of months, for true improvement.

As I was watching this man in his prime demonstrate sequences I was in awe. However, his practise is not my practise.

I have never aspired to falling backwards into full wheel, or knotting my body, or practising for three or four hours every day. I don't even aspire to teach. But I do love yoga for the richness and insights it continues to bring to my life.

If I took anything from this weekend intensive it is the importance to continue to practise and learn, as well as remember insights gained previously. Perhaps the biggest insight I am taking away this weekend is that as I grow older I need not necessarily put limits on myself, but I also need to be wise about how I sustain and evolve my practise.

postscript And I am being reminded of these lesson! Somewhere along the way I threw myself out of alignment and a week later I am still aching.