Some people think “advanced yoga” is the ability to get into hard poses like side plank with your legs in a scissor in front of you, or arm balances, or poses where your arms are locked in a bind.
What does it mean to be “advanced” in yoga?
The Physical Practice
In general, many people are quick to attempt to get into the more physically demanding variations of a pose without realizing how much depth there is to explore in the fundamentals.
Take tadasana — mountain pose. This is the most basic pose: standing with both feet on the ground. But it’s far from basic. Standing upright in proper alignment is difficult. Most of us do this incorrectly.
Many people don’t realize tadasana is a balance pose. You can spend a lifetime mastering how to stand in mountain pose.
In fact, I’d say that the person who has that practice is probably more advanced. It takes a lot of discipline to master the fundamentals without moving on too quickly.
Within the physical practice, what makes a pose advanced? Some people are more flexible and have an easier time with the more “complicated” poses, but can’t balance on one foot.
Others (like me) can balance well but struggle with poses requiring flexibility.
Each will find challenges in different areas.
Even within the parts of the physical practice where you are strong, sometimes you can do something one day and not be able to do it the next day. Or you can do it in the morning and not in the afternoon.
“Advanced yoga” to me means making choices in alignment with what my body and soul need that day, or that hour. It means knowing when to push and when to back off, and respecting my edge, wherever it is in that moment on my mat.
Off-the-Mat Yoga
To be clear, yoga is far more than a physical practice. Alignment principles aren’t limited to anatomy. There’s also soul alignment.
What choices — on and off the mat — are aligned with my soul’s needs and desires?
You might be able to reach your foot from overhead, but if you aren’t exploring your edge off the mat and applying the principles of alignment to your life choices, then you’re not really practicing yoga.
Advanced yoga is about taking these concepts into our life off the mat.
Ultimately, I think there’s no such thing as “advanced” yoga. We are all beginners in some area of the practice, whether it’s an area of the physical practice or the off-the-mat practice.
Yoga is a journey of continuous learning and growth. It’s important to approach it with a beginner’s mind.
The moment we believe we are “advanced” in yoga is the moment we stop approaching our practice with “beginner’s mind.” And that’s when we stop learning and growing.
Perhaps the most “advanced yoga” is the recognition that you’re always a beginner.
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