WAC Magazine

March 2013

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Getting Fit barbara kInney By Erin Goldman, WAC Yoga Instructor Yoga practice allows us to move beyond our tendencies and experience personal growth. The mat as a microcosm Yoga offers a starting point for greater life changes I ���m on my yoga mat and things are starting to get really intense. I���m thinking, ���This is way too hard. I want to give up. I wish the teacher would stop talking about breathing.��� I begin to notice my thoughts, my behavioral tendency of wanting to quit when things get hard. Then, I take in a deep breath. After acknowledging my tendencies, I allow them to pass. My yoga mat acts as a small world of my own, a microcosm, a safe place to notice and transform negative thoughts and behaviors. It allows me to work on moving beyond these tendencies and replace them with positive actions. Irvin Yalom, an existential psychotherapist and accomplished author, writes about group therapy and relates it to the concept of a microcosm. He explains that a therapy group functions like a social microcosm. Within time, the behaviors of individuals in their therapy groups start to parallel their actions outside the group���s environment. The negative behaviors present in a person���s outside world are eventually adapted in their therapy group. The same idea is found to be true during yoga practice. The mat functions as a microcosm composed of our entire life experience. Any thoughts, behaviors or tendencies we face or exhibit in our day-to-day lives can be recognized during our time spent on the mat. If you tend to be too hard on yourself, 22 | Washington Athletic Club Magazine | MARCH 2013 it will show on the mat. The same can be said if you���re passive, inattentive, or fixated on comparing yourself to others. The more time we spend on the mat, the more it becomes a safe place for us to retreat, a judgment-free environment where we can let go of our daily pressures. It allows us to observe our predispositions instead of just reacting or defending ourselves. The next time you���re on your mat, I invite you to notice your thoughts and tendencies. The more familiar you become with your patterns, the easier it will be to start making small shifts���to allow a negative thought to fade with a breath, to allow yourself to feel compassionate toward others in the class rather than comparing yourself to them, to allow yourself to enjoy the feeling of your body rather than fixating on what you have to do after class. Small changes on the mat will automatically translate into changes off the mat. Soon, you���ll find yourself exhibiting the same positive attitudes throughout your life. Your mat is your personal space for awareness, self-discovery, growth, and change���one pose at a time. ���Erin Goldman teaches Hatha yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the WAC. For more information about yoga or other Group Fitness classes, contact Debbie Officer at dofficer@wac.net.

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