Truly Professional Yoga Class: What feeling does it give to a practitioner?

People are drawn to yoga practice for various reasons. We come to classes because we believe that yoga will help to balance our emotions, reduce the level of stress, increase flexibility, open chakras, remove pain in joints, bring our self-esteem back and many other promises that today's advertisements about yoga scream about from all corners in the social media.

How many people have you spoken to or saw today had visible effects from practising yoga? How many people looked calm? How many people looked healthy? How many people looked happy? Hesitation in the answer might be an alarm that today's yoga classes need more knowledgeable sorcerers.

Let me ask you who is a yoga teacher? The answer can be obvious. It is a person who went to yoga school, took the course and received a certification. Well, logically this is the correct definition. But in yoga, logic is not reliable. Yoga requires more than logic, as well as more than XYZ hours of certification. Additionally, the fact that the practitioner has been doing yoga for years is not a guarantee she/he is a professional. Defining who is a professional in the science of yoga is an arguable task, because everyone will have their personal view on it. The answer though can be found in students, who look and, most importantly, feel unwound and peaceful after the professionally taught class.

This article is about what truly healing yoga class brings to its practitioners. The points below can't be forcefully felt. They sound familiar, as everybody talks about them, but they can only naturally be experienced personally without the teacher's guidance and adjustments.

The initial feeling experienced at the efficient yoga class is the grounding. Cultivated at the beginning, the grounding, or the feeling of presence, will remain throughout the class and long after. The teacher might point on the stability within you at the beginning of the class, as, firstly, she/he knows what the feeling is and also she/he is experiencing it while verbally mentioning about it to students. Do you feel this way at the yoga class?

When a practitioner no longer hears the teacher's voice and feels a complete concentration on the inner world, it means that the grounding has been naturally awakened.

To be grounded is not difficult when the teacher in class knows what he/she is talking about. Intuitively students pick up the teacher's knowing, creating the free-of-distractions atmosphere during practice. Also teachers who understand what grounding is and experience it during the practice are not talkative. They leave silence for students.

Another feeling experienced during the practice of yoga is the feeling of connection between the movements and the breath. The connection can happen at any time during the practice! The mindful teacher can remind the one to observe such connection, but will not voice it out frequently during the class. Leaving the space to experience the connection between the breath and the physical practice is what distinguishes the self-realized yoga teacher from others.

Breath is the most important part of life and yoga practice. Teachers who constantly talk while teaching the class will have no ability to concentrate on their own breath. How can you connect to the breath when constantly destructing the air flow with words?

Nervousness, pain and struggle are the implicit antidotes to the graceful practice of yoga! If you experienced these feelings in a class then it is time to reconsider the value of such class in your practice. Such feelings will never bring the practitioner self-realization and liberation. Release and easiness are not coming from discomfort. They are coming from steadiness and concentration. A truly professional yoga teacher understands and practices this concept in life, and this is what you need to look for in yoga class.

My yoga practice is based on the below teaching materials:

1. Life of a Yogi by Sri Dharma Mittra

2. Dharma Mittra - Maha Sadhana Level I (DVD)

3. Dharma Mittra - Maha Sadhana Level II (DVD)

4. Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide To Joy

5. Three Truths Of Well Being: Empower Your Body, Mind and Energy For Joyful Living

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