I teach a number of yoga classes each week in a number of sorts of settings.
My students range in age from youngish to oldish.
For one, I teach a weekly class in a community center. Participants join me from the nearby neighborhood. It is a yoga class where much of the practice is done while sitting in a chair. We also stand. We use the stability of the chair or the wall's vertical presence for information and support. These props are part of our practice. This is yoga.
Additionally, I have taught in a number of corporate settings. I bring a yoga class to those who may spend hours seated at a desk staring at a computer screen. I offer those who join my class a break, a respite from their usual seated posture. We do yoga with a chair and we stand. In parting, I suggest bits of yoga that can be done for just a few moments, pushed away from the desk at any time during the work day. Good for the body, good for the mind. This is yoga.
I also teach in assisted living facilities and at a Senior Day Program. Some of my students have physical and cognitive challenges. In these classes, most often for the entirety, we stay seated in the chair. We breathe and we move. Each time I see these yoga practioners, I introduce myself. As I do in all my classes, I talk about yoga, about the possibility of coming to a practice that can help in leaving distractions, worries, concerns; the chatter of the world--all of that, outside of the room. Some people may not recall my name. Some may not remember me at all. Often however, I observe that the movements are recalled. The breath brings back the yoga. Often we find calm. This is yoga.
It's not about the chair.
Thanks to the artist James Gulliver Hancock.
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