Educating the Heart: Our approach to teaching yoga to beginners

Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash

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Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.
- Aristotle

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If you want to learn yoga, you might start out (as I did) looking up yoga poses online, getting a book on yoga, or even attending a class for beginners.  A few decades ago, it might have been difficult to find a yoga class nearby and so, whatever kind of class you found, well…that’s what you got.  

These days, there are so many options, the problem is now one of overwhelm.  “Which kind of yoga should I do?”  “How should I start practicing yoga?”  “What is the best kind of yoga for me?” are all questions that arise from beginners approaching our studio.

The truth is, do whatever kind of yoga makes you feel best and that you can do consistently.  As I mentioned, I started practicing yoga with poses I found online and in books.  Eventually, my curiosity brought me to classes.  Finally, I met my guru, who has taught me what yoga is really about.  The process unfolded naturally over time.

With kids of all ages returning to school, we are reminded of the importance of continual learning and education.  One of the things we love most at 5KY is bringing yoga into schools.  Although what the kids learn in their classrooms about math, literature, history, and science is essential, yoga brings an education on something slightly different.

Whereas our schools educate our children’s bodies and minds, yoga nurtures their hearts.  This is why bringing yoga into the classroom is so important.  Yoga for children is not a type of play but a true education.  In the method we use, we are not simply teaching our kids cute animal poses or telling a story with yoga poses interspersed.  

When taught correctly, this method of children’s yoga is a serious practice that can teach children how to calm themselves, regulate their emotions, and tune into the messages that their body, heart, and mind transmit.  It works on all aspects of the child.  Not just the physical or even mental aspects, but their spirit - their heart - as well.

We are starting to understand that it is not just the IQ that matters.  There are multiple types of intelligence that we ought to be developing.  Yoga works the mind and body, yes.  But it disciplines the body to be calm and the mind to be silent, so that the heart can speak.  

When we teach our kids emotional intelligence - empathy, compassion, wisdom - we prepare them to live in a world filled with other beings and all the joys and challenges inherent in that.  This world, rich with the experiences of loving others, is what I want to prepare my child for.

But we have all been children before and retain (deeply buried as it may be) some of that childlike wonder and vulnerability.  Yoga is a gift to that inner child, as it nurtures the emotional intelligence that this world so desperately needs.

So I’d like to give a different kind of primer on yoga.  Not one like I sought out when I first began; full of flashy poses and not much substance.  I’d like to suggest some tips for the beginner that I wish I would have received when I started practicing yoga.  This is a primer for beginners on the heart of yoga.

A HEART-CENTERED APPROACH:
​FIVE TIPS FOR THE YOGA BEGINNER

1. Acknowledge the history and culture that underpins yoga - It’s easy to see yoga as a type of calisthenics.  There are plenty of offerings out there that refer to yoga as stretching or exercise.  While yoga can incorporate elements of stretching and exercise, yoga is creating unity within ourselves and between ourselves and the rest of the universe.  When we divorce yoga from its spiritual traditions, we appropriate a discipline that has been refined over centuries to purify a person from inside out, for our own purposes as mere exercise.  For more on practicing yoga in a culturally sensitive way, please read this article from a dear friend of the studio, Nirja Parikh.
2. Start at the beginning - To jump off this first point, I can suggest a place for you to start.  Did you know that Ashtanga Yoga (the Eight-Limbed Path) only mentions yoga poses in one of its eight limbs?  And that the first two limbs don’t even mention yoga poses?  This is because we need to refine our egos before mastering the physical poses.  Mastery of the physical practices of yoga without mastery over our egos can cause us to mislead, disillusion, or domineer others and the pure self within us.  To begin the eight-limbed path, we need to start at the beginning, with the Yamas and the Niyamas, which are ethical practices that teach us to treat ourselves and others with proper respect.
3. Integrate the body and mind - Given how easily our mind travels to places and times without our body, it’s easy to forget that the mind and body are one.  There are pathways between the mind and body that bypass our awareness.  Neurotransmitters originate in our digestive system.  Reflexes that develop in the womb persist in activating our muscles without our conscious control.  Our vagus nerve gives the “all clear” signal to the major organs in our body once stressors are gone, allowing the organs to resume optimal functioning.  So let’s recognize that what we do for our body, affects our mind and vice versa.  This is where the efficiency of yoga is apparent: we work the body, mind, and heart at once and they all ascend together.
4. View rest as an essential part of yoga - It deeply saddens me when I see yoga students skip out of final relaxation.  This is not a feel-good, optional nap.  This is the sacred practice of Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep), which is referenced in the fifth limb of Ashtanga Yoga as Pratyahara.  When we allow ourselves to sink deeply into a state of rest, we transcend our body and mind for a moment and go straight to the heart.  This deep rest allows the integration of the mind and body mentioned above.  So rather than seeing this as the least important part of our practice, I challenge you to regard this as the most important part of not only your practice, but your day.  I think because resting quietly without getting swept up in our thoughts is so challenging, this is the reason so many people want to skip it (whether they like to admit it or not).  It can be uncomfortable to sit quietly with our thoughts.  Like anything else worth doing, once met, the challenge will be worth it.
5. Step off your mat to really get good at yoga - This is a common refrain at the end of classes.  When you step off your mat, that’s when the practice of yoga really begins.  It’s true!  Since yoga is union, our mat is only where we learn to discipline ourselves.  The world is where we test this discipline.  When I began practicing yoga, I would feel proud if I could do a really complicated pose.  Now, I feel proud when my mind stays clear when someone is being careless or rude with me.  I feel proud when my heart rate stays slow and steady when my baby cries.  I feel proud when I can listen to a person’s differing opinion without feeling upset.  That is the true test of mastery in yoga - how you are with yourself when you’re not on the yoga mat.

I still have a lot of work to do on myself.  That's the beauty of yoga.  The work is never really done.  There is always room to develop our understanding of ourselves more.

As counterintuitive as this may seem, my final recommendation for people starting yoga, is to pick a practice that you like and stick with it.  Even if that practice is purely physical, like mine was when I began.  If you keep your heart open, all the rest will come in due time.

​Want a heart-centered introduction to yoga that also teaches you beginner yoga poses?  Try our four-week at home beginner yoga retreat!