What I’ve learned from 300 yoga classes

Not necessarily what you might expect!

No crazy inversions that I’ve mastered (I do try my best though) but instead I’ve rewritten some of the narrative I had in my mind about what a yogi should be able to master, to be able to teach the most advanced, I’ve learned not to write myself off.

From doing 300 online classes with Alo Moves, I’ve varied my practice, styles, teachers and series, and learned a lot about consistency. Keeping up my own practice, rolling out my mat at whichever time of day I felt called to or had a window of opportunity to practice.

Whilst doing my YTT last year, I craved more exploration, more playful approaches to the practice that even 2 years ago I felt had to be the following:

• 1 hour minimum or it doesn’t count

• Contain a crazy amount of vinyasas and inversions

• Make my heart rate soar and burn X amount of calories for the day.

I was so caught up in the aesthetic, the feeling of constant self development that I missed the point. Just as you can skim through books and not absorb their content, you can move through a class and not have absorbed its intention, richness, concept or glean any lasting effects of the asanas, pranayama or meditation you may have hoped.

I guess I’ve learned from 300 classes is that the practice is never complete, that there’s ways of deepening each and every moment, movement, breath and shape that you make.

Stepping onto your mat really is the toughest part, deciding to make your day a positive one by mindfully choosing to connect your mind and body. If that’s a sweaty Vinyasa, amazing. If it’s a soulful Yin class, you go Glenn Coco.