Whenever we sit with a new group to share yoga, Jay and I often ask questions like: what do you think yoga looks like? What do you think the most “advanced” yoga pose is? There are many ways to answer these questions. You can take them at surface value or you can get deeply philosophical. We ask them simply to see where attendees are in their yoga experience (if any) and what they understand about yoga. That way we have a some starting place to meet each person in the group.
However, wherever we happen to be in the US, the answers tend to be on a similar theme: headstand, shoulder stand, downward dog, sausage pants, etc.
Let’s pause for a moment…
Do you agree? What might be your reply? Feel free to stop reading and take more time to consider your own answer.
There still seems to be the idea that the more complicated the pose is, the more “advanced” it must be. This includes answers we hear from adaptive and therapeutic settings. So, yes, we also ask the question to help raise (and dispel) any myths that still surround yoga.
How about seated mountain pose, practicing awareness, as an advanced pose? For so many reasons. Sitting in a chair. A kitchen chair. A wheelchair. An office chair. A community center chair. No yoga mat or props or special clothing required. No matter how your body breathes or perceives the experience of breathing. You can even wear shoes and do yoga 🙂
From this place, perhaps we can take a meaningful pause. We might notice tension in the shoulders or in the jaw or tongue. And see about inviting a softening. We might aim to establish a place of safety within our own experience.
And, from seated mountain pose, that proverbial yoga mat (the one we don’t use) might roll inward. We might begin to deepen our inner awareness too. Cultivate self-compassion. Experience our own presence.
There are so many benefits to seated mountain.
And those complicated body-based poses? Perhaps they are not safe for many of our bodies, whether we walk or roll.
Yoga is too vast an experience to fit inside our body anyway.