All Our Yoga Stuff

Taking yoga classes all over the country over the years incites me.  In each class, almost regardless of yoga style, one can locate several staples. You will always find some form of prop.

Props were not always so important, but now the majority of Western yoga students would not be comfortable without them. I do not believe props a bad thing. However, I do contemplate:  What makes us so in need of what has become many Westerns only way to touch their toes? 

Yoga is for every body and therefore should be accessible, but I also believe in working hard to create a quality yoga practice, so as not to be attached to our props like crutches that never go away. There is something magical about locating the full experience and magical moment when a challenging pose becomes one's own. 

In yoga classes or studios, yoga paraphernalia is profound: beads, pictures, incense, statues, gongs, cymbals, yoga mats or rugs, or yoga clothing (with cute “third eye” sayings) and the list goes on. And, I wonder who decided that we need all of this? Capitalism?

Without having ventured, myself, to India or Egypt or any other country where yoga is a moving force, I hear only second hand accounts of what yoga looks like there and how it is practiced. But what I do know  is that much of what we use is not necessary, and definitely not to the extent to which we have placed value.

Are we really able to do more with all this or is it weighing us down? And for what form of acrobatics are we practicing? Are we looking for a stage or a life? 

This blog is not an attempt to be cynical of our Western style. I appreciate the use of blocks and straps. I find that my arms can stretch further or my alignment becomes better suited with these things at different times. I enjoy the yoga studio and its imagery and instruments, and I like nice clothes to practice in. Still, it in those first moments when I enter a yoga studio that I recognize the amount of stuff that we assume to need. This is not to point at yoga, but to address a culture of possible hoarding that has filtered into our yoga sanctuaries. 

Patanjali, a sage in ancient India estimated to have lived between 2nd century B.C. to 4th century A.D, shares many things in the Yoga Sutras about these "needs" that we assume to have. 

One of the yamas, aparigraha, or non-greed uncovers the reality of our excessive wants and how they become needs. I reach forward into a space where we come to do yoga without all the extras, maybe even minus a mat, wearing some cloth, because that is all we need. It is my belief that yoga studios cater to the eye of American beginners, who feels that they will be more prepared if they have that tool or those pants. 

The Western student receives, most often, a watered down teaching, making yoga just a physical practice when it is much more. I get it: it is in this way that we are able to build confidence in our bodies and allow us to feel into what is possible. I’ve listened to yoga teachers as I practice around the country and realize that we are collectively scant on philosophy. We create physical camps with which we draw our strength. We over-emphasize the physical in order to mask God, deities, prayer, chanting… in order to make our students comfortable. 

Yoga is not about comfort. It is about going into the fire to purify our workings, internally and externally, to find ease there. It is not about treading softly around the truth. Yoga is about the whole truth, beautiful and the ugly. So might we strive to create a healing space rather than one of distractions!!

Here are some ways that you can use props that are right in your house and make the most of your practice without all of the hassle.

1. Books are great yoga blocks. Get two that are about the same size. Take off the book cover so you do not slip and slide. You can even wrap the books in paper bags for more grip and consistency. 

2. A hand towel, tie, or belt can pose as a strap. Straps are great to make your limbs longer helping you reach your foot or bring your hands together, by using the cloth in between. 

3. A firm pillow or couch cushion can be a bolster, and a small flat throw pillow is great to sit on for meditation. 

4. A carpet is a great mat for practice. I practice all over my house: sometimes on a rug, sometimes on my mat, and sometimes on sheep skin. What is most helpful for me is considering what type of practice I am wanting to do. And if at any point, it does not work out, I move it aside and make use of the hardwood floors throughout my house, which is even better for some poses. 

It is not easy, I assume, to lose, for most, what makes yoga classes and pockets grow. But what do we really need for this practice? In my opinion props are helpful and in some cases necessary, but we should continue to inquire when we thoughtlessly pick up that block every class: "Do I need this today?" If you do, take it. If you don't, exercise aparigraha, and let it go.  

No doubt, if you are in rags on the street without all the stuff, and yoga is meant to find you, it will.  No matter how you practice, yoga’s lasting power is not in the stuff we use to create an illusion or to make ourselves comfortable. Yoga sticks to the bones because it presents the truth-- minus all of our earthly defenses.

Prop or no prop, 

Courtney