Are Private Yoga Sessions Really Worth It?
There are many reasons why private yoga sessions could be just the thing for you. Perhaps you have been considering it for a while but weren’t sure if it was right, or maybe even felt a bit nervous doing a class on your own with an instructor. If you’ve not done private exercise sessions before it can seem a little daunting, for some people, to have the sole attention of the teacher on them! However rest assured that, for the instructor, they do this on a regular basis and are accustomed to how you might be feeling and will work hard to try and put you at ease. If you aren’t quite sure what to expect from a private class of yoga on Mornington Peninsula, read on to find out more.
Why honest feedback helps
Feel confident to express your feedback to the instructor so that they know what to include more or less of, and what you have enjoyed or would rather avoid. Remember that this is your time and you are paying for a class to be customised to suit your goals and needs. A good teacher will always bear this in mind and structure the content of the session around the short or long term aims that you have discussed together. The format of the class and its content can be modified as you go along, to ensure that it continues to meet your expectations.
What are adjustments and are they necessary?
As a student, for me these gentle hands-on moments of teaching have led to many ‘a-ha’ moments, when I realise that this is what a pose is supposed to feel like or I have been over or under emphasising a particular element. The feedback is always incredibly helpful.
There should be no yanking or forcing in a direction where your body simply doesn’t want to go, but more a suggestion of where it might like to go. This can help create the feeling of ‘muscle memory’, also known as proprioception, where your muscles build up familiarity with a pose by moving in to it over and over again. With repetition, it soon becomes second nature and your body will move in to the position without your brain having to become consciously involved. This brings about a wonderful transition in to your next stage of yoga evolution, where you can focus on the internal experience of the pose and all the sensations it brings.
By dropping down in to the body and becoming absorbed in the practice, our thoughts appear to drop away by themselves and we find ourselves in the delicious place of being completely absorbed in the practice. We are in a flow state. Modern science has officially identified this as a state of being, it is the optimal mental state when an individual is completely immersed in an activity. It leads to an effortless fluidity from one action to the next, provides a positive response to stress and creates a sense of meaning, hope and fulfillment. If you have ever dropped in to this zone at work or in an activity that you love, you will be able to identify with this state, even if it feels a little beyond verbal description at times.
Add in conscious direction of the breath and you are well on your way to falling completely in love with yoga and the space that it provides your body and mind to relax, release, reset and recharge. A full body, mind and soul workout – there’s nothing else quite like it! Once you have touched on that place, you understand what your yoga mad colleagues have been going on about and why this millennia old practice continues to thrive thousands of years on. It continues to be as relevant today as it was back then. Some may say in our busy and digital times, this reconnection to ourselves, and thus others, is more vital than ever. Taking the time and creating the space to move, breath and flow through yoga can provide many benefits on many levels and gives you the chance to make some room just for you.
If this sounds like something you would like to experience, contact Mount Martha Yoga today and we can discuss where you are at on your own personal yoga journey. You might be taking your very first step, or you might be a long way down the track, either is absolutely fine, the practice meets you at wherever you are when you step on the mat. That’s the magic of it! Practicing Yoga on Mornington Peninsula is a particularly beautiful spot, the rolling hills and seascapes lend themselves to the quiet peacefulness that awaits. I invite you to come and feel the difference of private yoga sessions at Mount Martha Yoga.
