I have a tendency to be one of those “serious” yogis. I study a lot, I like alone time and silence, and genuinely love practicing at home.
I remember in Eat Pray Love the Balinese healer said to Elizabeth Gilbert
“Why they always look so serious in Yoga? You make serious face like this, you scare away good energy. To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver. Practice tonight at hotel. Not to hurry, not to try too hard. Too serious, you make you sick. You can calling the good energy with a smile.
After recently attending a Kids training where we were learning kids yoga through silly games, singing songs and doing funny partner poses. I felt this sense of lightness and joy overcome me and I then realized how serious I can be. We had a very insightful conversation about this topic ,It was interesting to see that for some teachers and students the tendency to take themselves too seriously occurs before the class and it carries into class and others feel it in the midst of teaching or practicing, while others feel it as beating themselves up after the fact.
If you look at images of adults practicing yoga, there’s a significant trend. All those serene and yet serious faces. In perfect looking poses, with clothes that fit just so and nary a wrinkle or catch in them. No skin folds. Often photoshopped into a pristine and sometimes hard to recognize version of themselves. Not a lot of room for playing.
In kids yoga It’s silly! Giggles and games. Posing like trees that wobble and fall, and they’re okay with trying again! When kids make it into Relaxation pose at the end of their class, they still have the tiniest of smiles. They get to play, and then they rest.
Of course, focusing whilst in your practice is important and ultimately as Patanjali says we are looking to achieve a steady and comfortable seat ‘asana’ in our yoga practice. With this steadiness comes a level of detachment from everything around and the more we practice the more we develop this ability to detach and look inwards. But does this mean we should lose a light heartedness in our practice?
Yoga can be deeply playful. An experiment in joy. I’ve been known to take myself waaaaay too seriously, My own personal Yoga is about finding balance between the two.Yoga means union, after all.I invite you to join me. Stop worrying about whether or not your balance stinks, you’ll look bad, or that you’ll do something wrong. Be willing to giggle a little (or a lot), and take yourself less seriously.
