When I first started yoga back in (I think it was) 2013. I started by watching YouTube videos. Which was great for me. I was and still can be a very anxious person and the thought of going to a yoga class where everyone would know what they were doing and I would look like an idiot petrified me. Let alone driving to a new place and trying to find parking. I had issues, I know!
So I practiced online for years. In fact until 2019 when I went to my first Ashtanga yoga class. The thing is with practicing online is that I thought I was doing all the poses correctly when in actually fact I wasn’t. When I went to my first class and she gave out different cues to what I had heard before I felt so much better. The poses felt stronger, more stable but I was still the least flexible person in the room.
Luckily if you know ashtanga it is a pretty fast paced class and the teacher who I was with is very popular so her classes were extremely busy meaning there is so much going on that everyone is juts completely focused on themselves. That being said I was completely focused on everyone else BUT myself. I was new, I didn’t know what I was doing.
The teacher was lovely and kept coming to adjust me which is how I realised that most of the poses I were practicing at home I was actually doing incorrectly. The thing with YouTube is that anyone can post there. Meaning they may not even be yoga teachers. This is why I focus my classes on beginners and correct alignment. If you have done one of my classes, you will know I go into quite a bit of detail to make sure you do the pose correctly.
After that class I felt like I understood so much more. So much so that I actually didn’t go back for a while and started practicing more online but using my own intuition and memories of what that teacher taught me. This helped me so much, because not only was I improving my practice physically but I also started using my own intuition better.
After my yoga teacher training in 2020, I definitely feel so much more confident having done all that hands on work. This is why I am so passionate about helping others correct their alignment and get deeper into poses.
If you have not worked with a teacher yet I would highly recommend that you do so. There are loads of teachers out there so also try a few and see who resonates with you. You can even do this online via Zoom. I am often correcting my students over Zoom and in fact we have a private community were students can post videos and pictures for feedback as well. Sometimes you don’t see or feel things yourself but others can point them out.
My conclusion to this blog is that getting feedback helped me physically protect and advance my body but also helped me think a little more about how the poses feel and to listen to my own intuition. If a pose feels off, then it quite possibly could be your alignment. Ask for feedback wherever and whenever you can. That is how you improve!
If you would like some online classes and your own feedback, check out Lakora Yoga Membership below!
