What is Yoga in America?

What is yoga? I was once told you get out of yoga what you want from it. I don't remember what yogi told me that. It has stuck and I have found that to be true. Not only for myself but for the students I have taught. I myself started taking yoga as a matter of curiosity not only for what yoga is but as an interest in finding a form of exercise that I can do that doesn't create migraines for me.

I started yoga back in the late 90's while I was working and going to graduate school. I sat down for the initial meditation of class and had to hold back the tears. I was so incredibly stressed out yoga was exactly what I needed. I kept up with it as a way to manage my stress levels. Eventually I started taking more and more classes and found that my physical body was changing.

I was getting more fit and healthy. My needs for yoga began to change. I liked how I was looking and feeling. I wanted more form yoga, I wanted to sweat and feel like I had pushed my body to the edge each and every class. My instructor kept encouraging me to teach. I wasn't ready for that. I wanted to learn more and understand what yoga was about before I took on that role of all knowing teacher. I gradually began to enjoy, even look forward to meditation. Especially at the close of class with savasana.

My first few yoga instructors were Anusara instructors. From there I worked with a few Vinyasa instructors, Iyengar, and Vini instructors. As an instructor, I am a combination of all these forms. Recently I took classes from an instructor that taught from the Dynamic Yoga perspective. I continue to learn. Yoga has so much to give. There are so many schools of yoga to try. I started branching out and taking workshops with yogis outside of the St. Louis area. These yogis pushed my internal boundaries of comfort and knowledge. My wants from yoga became that of what can I actually do with my physical space and how deep can I get into my internal space to clear out old junk and debris? I found yoga to be extremely healing.

In fact around 2001 I had a nasty car accident where I was rear ended by public transportation bus. It left me with some spinal issues that I was struggling with even under the care of a physical therapist and chiropractor. After an emotionally grueling workshop I went home crying. That night I had a sensation I can only explain as tingling up and down my spine. When I woke up the pain I had been unable to release for months was gone. I went back to the workshop renewed and excited. I continued to utilize the grounding powers of yoga to help me manage my stress levels as I graduated from graduate school and started out in the work force.

Professionally I have chosen a stressful job, I work as a licensed counselor. I found that teaching my clients how to use simple techniques such has pranayama, to be helpful to them as well to manage their own emotional issues. Of course I eventually began teaching yoga as well. As the Universe does the students who sought me out tended to have emotional issues, and hopefully they had their own therapist outside of their yoga mat. Yoga taught me boundaries. Boundaries to have with my clients and my students. Yoga helped me accept the type of yoga instructor I am.

I am a great intermediate and advanced instructor. I am a fair to good beginner instructor. This caused some struggle with my personal instructor whom I taught for. She allowed me to be the instructor I was and gave me space to learn and grow. Without yoga I would have just given up and left that studio all together. My students found that I was challenging and I enjoyed seeing where the edge of everyone's yoga practice was. They knew they could count on a physically challenging class as well as fun and laughter to fill the studio.

What I have stated numerous times when you try yoga try different instructors. We're all different, you'll learn new things from each of us and find those you really connect to and some you don't. And that's OK. When my students became comfortable with me as a person and with their yoga practice they would ask for what they wanted and needed in class. Some moved on to other instructors. Some are instructors themselves. In fact one student moved back to Europe with her happinesslifetime.com Yoga Certification in hand. Many students came to class wanting to relax, some came via requests of their PCP, physical therapist, or chiropractor for physical reasons.

Those students that I was blessed to have with me for a long time also found their need from yoga changed and evolved. The one constant in life is change, and thus yoga changes as well.

From my counseling career I became a Certified Professional Coach, a fancy way of saying I'm a trained Life Coach. I have meshed my yoga in with my coaching as well and have co-facilitated workshops that included both, with great success. It was wonderful to watch students take their yoga to a new, deeper, emotional and spiritual level that allowed them to move forward in life with more ease and satisfaction. I continue to enmesh my yoga into my coaching practice. In fact I specialize, as a Life Coach, in coaching yogis with creating balance throughout their entire life.

I currently am fusing my yoga with parenting. Breathing and meditating can make a toddler's temper tantrum seem like a minor thing. As a student I'm not sure what I want from yoga right now. It's just an old friend whom stays with me no matter what path I choose. As an instructor I want to continue to fuse yoga with coaching and have on-going workshops as well as individual sessions that bring more balance to my clients and the planet.

So the original question was What is yoga? In America it's very different from what it originated as in India, a way to get closer to God. Yet if you stay with yoga it will likely bring you closer to your spiritual self, emotional self, and physical self. It is not a form of religion unless you want it to be. It is not a cult. From my perspective it is plainly what you want it to be.

Tara S. Dickherber, M.Ed, CPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Professional Coach, ScreamFree Parent Leader, and yogi. She has practiced yoga for over 12 years and taught for 10 years. Tara currently specializes in coaching individuals who seek to incorporate their yoga practice throughout their life to create balance for life. She also specializes in coaching parents who want to overcome their own past issues to be the best parents they can be. To learn more about Tara go to mylifecoachtara.com mylifecoachtara.com