The most advanced yogis, even the famous ones like Pattabhi Jois, B.K.S. Iyengar, Sharon Gannon, David Life, Shiva Rea, Rodney Yee, and Duncan Wong were once beginners. Often, they were drawn to the mat due to illness, emotional upheaval, or even addiction. They used yoga as a functional physical and psychological tool to mold their bodies and minds to become more flexible, strong, and resilient.
Feeling like a beginner in yoga is a good thing. It’s helpful to remember that hardly anyone attained single-minded focus or wrapped their legs around their head all at once.
To keep you inspired and eager to approach your daily yoga practice with a beginner’s mind and heart, here are 10 “mysteries” you can look forward to realizing as your yoga practice matures:
- We can’t do every pose all the time, every day. Everyone’s bodies are built differently. Some of us carry our stress in our shoulders. Some of us carry our burdens in our lower back and hips. Since we are all individual creatures, our practice must be tailored to those differences. Advanced yogis knows this and don’t expect to find every asana easy. Practice makes perfect, but go slow, honor your daily rhythms, and let your body and mind find the poses you need each day.
- True yoga is more than asana practice. We practice karma yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, pranayama, mudra, meditation, yamas and niyamas, and try to eat a yogic diet. The physical practices of yoga are just a small part of everything that is yoga.
- We enjoy the fruits of our practice. Advanced yogis not only look flexible, but their minds are often more pliant than regular folks, so they can bend with the upsets and trials of life more easily. Advanced yogis still lose their tempers and hope for change in certain areas of their lives, but they are comfortable ‘surfing the void,’ and just being o.k. with whatever is right now.
- Experienced yogis naturally draw other like-minded people to themselves. We eventually realize that our practice has changed our bodies, our personalities, and our energy. We tend to draw people to us who are energetically charged, positive, and loving. That is why our world seems so fabulous and serendipitous, but obviously not without challenges.
- There is that one pose we’ll be working on forever. While we honor our bodies and know we can’t do everything, there is always a new posture that we would love to master, and that is partly what keeps us engaged in the practice. We always look to accomplish something new.
- We enjoy a better mood and more serendipitous meetings with situations and people because we have trained our neuro-receptors to seek and find happiness. It is called unconscious mastery, but it started with a conscious struggle.
- We use things like saucha or yogic detox to further our practice more expeditiously. When the body is cleaner and the organs are healthy, we can stretch further and maintain practice longer because we are full of energy.
- We come to discover the secrets of the chakras and kundalini awakening, which are not often referenced in a yoga studio class.
- As much as we enjoy becoming more enlightened beings ourselves, our growing awareness of our universal oneness makes watching others become better yogis is super fun too!
- We realize that yoga is all about cultivation and control of prana – all yoga practices lead back to this little gem of wisdom.
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[Editor's note: This is a guest post offered by YOME - The Yoga Portal for Wonderful Life found at http://YogaMeditationHome.com].
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Hi dear yoga fellows ! Congrats on your nice blog !
I am just leaving this message to invite you to have a look on my last blog post, where I am featuring body flattering yoga clothes .
Thank you so much for your time !
XX Luba
Well Living BLog
http://very-well-living.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/connecting-light.html
Love this, so true!! Also, amen to number 5
No matter how long I practice, wheel just isn’t available… Ah well, 8 years so far, another 8 maybe?
xx
Click Here!
So true! I love the first one especially, it is comforting to hear that even the most dedicated yogis aren’t perfect every day.
Thank you for the lovely article
xo
I have to agree with you. The first mystery Brian points out is, “We can’t do every pose all the time, every day.” This is my favorite mystery because it comforts me to know that I won’t be able to carry out every yoga pose perfectly. Everyone’s body is different and everyone has different amounts of stiffness and stressors on their muscles. So by taking one’s time and being patient with our body, it makes the yoga experience more enjoyable. So everyone has their own yoga routine and “daily rhythms.”
Great article! We just linked to this article on our facebook~
Thank you for this nice and useful article.
I feel like we should never forget being a beginner in yoga bc we can always learn something new and we should keep that learning spirit alive. Keeping in mind the mind set of a beginning yogi will help us understand our students better.
It’s very true to always be humble and see oneself as being a beginner. It encourages learning and keeping the “learning spirit alive” as you said. This also allows newcomers to feel invited to the yogi atmosphere. There is less intimidation to learning if everyone is on the same level of consciousness. The way Brian approached his audience through this wonderful blog was done by demonstrating simplicity and providing intriguing explanations. His word choice was very powerful, creating a mood of serenity.
This article is very informative and interesting. Not only does Brian talk about yoga, but invites the general public to discover the wonderful wonders of yoga. No matter if you are a beginner or a professional, the author introduces “10 mysteries advanced yogis know”. It inspires individuals to improve and practice at their own level. It also introduces the idea of considering one self as a beginner, no matter the amount of experience one has. The purpose of this useful idea is to invite the individual to be open to learning.
Brian’s use of diction affects the emotional appeal by using descriptive and powerful words such as, “fabulous”, “energetically positive”, “wisdom”, “serendipitous” and so on. His use of diction affects the emotional appeal by using these words. When the fourth yogi mystery is explained as, “We tend to draw people to us who are energetically charged, positive, and loving. That is why our world seems so fabulous and serendipitous, but obviously not without challenges,” the law of attraction is brought into action. The law of attraction is the simple idea of attracting your thoughts, feelings, etc, into your life. The author’s explanation of naturally attracting people who are similar in consciousness and energy, is successfully done by using diction and applying the belief of the law of attraction. This effective use of diction creates a positive tone of peace and tranquility.