As a high school teacher, I often find myself amazed at the “running commentary” that comes from my teenaged students during my lessons. They often feel the need to assert their opinions, judgments or even a loosely related anecdote after virtually every point I make. While this kind of constant feedback can be comical or welcome at times, it is more often than not unnecessary and impedes the flow of the lesson.
Our yoga practice can be seen in a similar light. While engaging in 90 minutes of Bikram yoga with our bodies, we are also exercising our minds in a challenge that is equally rigorous. For one, we enter and exit the room in utter silence–a task that on its own can be trying. Many exercise regiments encourage its participants to talk and ask questions. Being required to wait out a full hour and a half can be gruelling when we come across burning questions mid-pose, or we simply want to make a comment to our neighbour.
In addition to keeping silent for the duration of the class, the Bikram series asks us to follow along to a dialogue with our minds, simultaneously focusing on our breathing. I often hear instructors mention how important it is to regulate our self-talk during the series. This requires a very intentional shutting off of our own “running commentaries,” our own interior monologues. The reason why Bikram calls his instructor dictation a “dialogue” rather than a “monologue” is because we are actively participating in its formation. The words can actually become our own if we block out our judgments, inhibitions, and even our self-praise.
Most of us are aware of how toxic self-talk can be. From thoughts like I’m too tired to go to class today to I’ll never be good enough to do a Standing Bow, we know the destructive potential of our inner voice. But even praising ourselves or being our own cheerleader can be a distraction in the series. Figuratively patting ourselves on the back can be just as immobilizing during the series as our negative self-talk. Instead of following the dialogue, we can find ourselves breaking off in moments of personal triumph and then struggling to return to the words.
I’ve heard many teachers say that one of their yoga goals is to limit the amount of personal reactions they experience in the series. So much can come up during a 90 minute class: emotional stress, wonderful epiphanies, physical breakthroughs. It’s important to be able to acknowledge whatever comes up and then move on, breath by breath, forming the words of the dialogue as your own voice.
Try explaining that to a class full of over-enthusiastic, eager-to-speak teenagers! I resort to the proverbial words of William Shakespeare to get my point across. Hamlet once explained that:
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Refraining from the onslaught of our own thoughts is a never-ending battle. It requires patience, dedication and will. Whether good or bad, we can all try to shelve our thoughts during yoga class, and embrace a practice that is free from the most critical judge of all–our self!
- Sandra Gin
