I overheard an interesting discussion in the changing room of my yoga studio the other day and I thought I’d bring it up here.
A student was feeling a little despondant that teachers regularly praise those people who achieve ‘beautiful’ asanas in class, such as a deep forward bend or a back bend with straight arms and legs; while these people may have been more flexible to begin with and thus have to put less effort into the pose than others whose asanas may not look quite as pretty, but have progressed more in terms of strength, flexibilty and mindfulness.
I’m not a yoga teacher, so I just wondered what others thought about this - how much should teachers be praising the ‘results’ in class rather than encouraging students along all parts of their journey … even if that student is still nowhere near touching their toes …