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Open invitation. (slrpnk.net)
submitted 3 weeks ago by meyotch@slrpnk.net to c/Yoga@slrpnk.net

Hi, I would like to hear from anyone who finds this community potentially interesting. Do we have enough interest in the topic of yoga to sustain a community?

Perhaps we could share a bit about our individual yoga practices and perhaps what we each might like from an online community?

I grew up in a redneck meshuggeneh quiet mountain town in the Rockies. At about the age of 14, I learned about yoga from a blurb in an old Readers Digest of all places. In retrospect it was quite an accurate depiction, much like you’d find in a textbook. I went to the community college library and devoured what books they had on yoga, and tangentially Ghandian political philosophy.

My unguided and solitary attempts at a physical practice didn’t last long. There was no community to practice with at the time in my whitebread universe. Over the years I have been drawn back to physical practice as circumstances have evolved.

I’m at a point where my practice has become central to my life. There’s no turning back now. As a deeply shallow man, I relish the physique and stamina I receive from my practice, but my appreciation for the mental and emotional benefits has deepened significantly in recent years.

I would like to focus on experiencing the social benefits of a yoga community, something that has largely eluded me so far. That’s on me, I am a stubbornly independent person with deep personal drives. So starting this community is part of a multi-pronged effort to ‘socialize my practice’.

My goal is to complete a 200 hour teacher training in 2025 as one of the real life efforts I am making toward the goal of deepening the community aspects of my practice.

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submitted 1 week ago by meyotch@slrpnk.net to c/Yoga@slrpnk.net

I just had a thought about my practice. I realize that being such a aficionado of yoga may conflict with my usual stance that is very ‘hard’ scientific and definitely materialistic.

Maybe that’s what I love about yoga. It is a very solid framework that can be approached from so many different angles.

For instance, for many years, I would just kind of tune out when instructors would talk about the subtle body. However, over the years as my awareness has grown, I realize that they are talking about a real thing.

It is not that there is an actual physical, subtle body, but as your awareness grows of your own body, your own perception of your body changes significantly with practice. You learn to experience what was always there, it iust didn’t make it through the perceptual filters we all have.

I have started to think of the loosey goosey aspects of yoga as ‘woo woo that works’. The benefits are real and measurable (observation), but the mechanisms are too complex for us to fully understand yet. Yoga is a theoretical framework that clearly can bring those benefits, but the language is often metaphorical and poetic.

This is how I remind myself of the limitations of science and leave myself open to deeper understanding. Being anything at all is a rather strange experience, isn’t it.

I would love to hear different perspectives from practitioners who subscribe generally to a scientific world view.

How do you find balance between hard empiricism and the sometimes ‘sponge-y’ language of of yoga?

Yoga

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A community for sharing discussions about the sincere practice of yoga. For anyone willing to learn and deepen a personal practice.

Code of conduct is the same as any real-life studio space. All subjects can be relevant but should be presented with a sense of reverence and respect for others and for yogic practices.

founded 3 weeks ago
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