Hari Om:
My yoga instructor recommends that I take off my contact lenses and glasses while doing yoga. Unfortunately due to language barriers, I haven’t been able to fully understand why he prefers me to be exercising without my visual crutches.
Please share your thoughts on this?
With much love and energy,
Neena
Hum, interesting as I am a yoga teacher and wear my contact lenses or glasses during my teaching and my practice. Have had no problems, ever. I wouldn’t be able to see my students if I didn’t wear them.
Curious to hear others take on this.
Neena: What kind of practice do you do with him? In some practices it might be uncomfortable to wear certain lenses for a long time, or wear classes during a lot of movements, especially upside down postures. It could also be that he would like you to not focus on what is around you, and this could help. I personally wear my contacts all the time, but if I happen to be wearing glasses when I practice, it is more practical and comfortable to remove them, rather than have them fall off in uttanasana.
I see you are in Chennai, where I am right now! Do you study at a school or with a private teacher?
I wear my glasses during my practice and I wouldn’t be able to see without them. I fI practiced with no glasses, everything would be a fuzz and I wouldn’t be able to see the teacher. I find they don’t really get in the way, expect in postures that call for placing one’s face very close to the ground. For example, sometimes in pigeon or child’s pose I will take them off otherwise my lenses will bop the floor.
Spectacles off for savasana or pranayama in the supine position. Otherwise on unless obstructing.
I perspire so much that any glasses on my face would soon end up in the pools forming on the mat. Besides, I don’t look much further than the end of my nose most of my practice. Not sure about contacts.
It’s too bad there is a language barrier, I’d be quite curious as to his reasoning. Is there someone who can interpret for you?
One thought would be that some feel various causes of poor eyesight can be corrected through asana. I can see some degree of logic that one should let go of the crutch so they can learn to walk without it.
David-I think you’re right in terms of he trying to correct my vision through asanas. We do eye exercises together and I think he’s convinced he can lower my eye power with these exercises (may be true for everyone else except me-given my high power).
Suryadaya-I’m indeed in Chennai but leave for Delhi in a few days for a year and then wherever destiny takes me. I’m a yoga-newbie…I found a teacher from a gym close to my apartment and he was kind enough to give me private classes. I just read that KYM is conducting a one-day seminar in Oct…would have loved to attend.
All this talk reminds me of something very memorable. I remember about 13-14 years ago, my family and I had stumbled across an institution on Pondicehrry called something like “school of perfect eye-sight” where we were told to do eye exercises ranging from staring a candle flame in the dark, watching a ball as we bounce it from hand-to-hand, rubbing our palms and placing them over our eyes. It was an amazing few days…I haven’t researched to see if this place is still around.
Neena, if you are able to do a class without your contacts why don’t you give it a try? I know that I prefer to do yoga without my contacts and yet, have never really examined why this is so. Just in the short time I’ve thought about it I will say that it allows me to focus inward more than outward.
I wear my glasses when I practice and I have never had a teacher tell me not to… but then I am not all that experienced in Yoga
[QUOTE=Neena Arora;35644]Suryadaya-I’m indeed in Chennai but leave for Delhi in a few days for a year and then wherever destiny takes me. I’m a yoga-newbie…I found a teacher from a gym close to my apartment and he was kind enough to give me private classes. I just read that KYM is conducting a one-day seminar in Oct…would have loved to attend.[/QUOTE]
Oh! would have loved to attend as well but I’ll be gone by then too. They give great lectures. If you’re in Delhi, I recommend looking for KYM teachers. Enjoy your move to Delhi! I was there last month and it was so hot that I think I am still sweating. Blah!
Oh - at this university in Bangalore we did eye exercises called Trataka. They said it could cure all eye ailments, which I have not experienced, but it did enhance my peripheral vision, my ability to focus my eyes and hold them steady, and knocked me out cold every night. I slept like a baby. If you find a good teacher in Delhi, have them teach you about that!