One Person Yoga Poses
I have been practicing yoga postures for 40 years and have spent a great deal of time in India studying yoga. Honestly, the only type of yoga pose I ever saw in India was with one person. Yes, nowadays there is a creation of something called “Acro Yoga” but this does not emanate out of India. This is an American offshoot where people perform poses together, not in unison but intertwined with each other.
Whether you are in a class or receiving a private lesson, hard or easy yoga poses for one person is all there is. In other words, it’s you feeling the way these poses feel on your body, and then according to the feel, partaking in these poses to the degree that feels personally right for you. These postures need to be discovered. What I mean is, every day your body is responding to many things whether it’s muscular tension, high or low energy, age, or injury. You even have weak days and strong days and of course loose days and tight days. So there need to be some moments initially in each pose where you are feeling how your body is responding and then according to the response you determine the direction and quantity of the movement or pose.
Even if you pick easy one-person yoga poses, it can be difficult. The reason is the most difficult part of any posture is quieting down our minds and tuning into our needs. This is the beginning of meditation when we quiet our minds and this is what is necessary to tune into what you are feeling so you can determine the correct degree to enter the pose.
So, regardless of whether it’s physically hard or easy poses, the real challenge is acquiring and maintaining that meditative state. The reason is our greatest addiction is the place where our minds dwell and we all know it’s not easy to break addictions. You have probably heard the term “master of one’s mind”. This means being able to direct one’s mind instead of the mind wandering aimlessly, which it has become accustomed to doing.
Now, I really like the idea of one-person yoga poses for kids because the earlier one starts, the better. The longer one waits, the more deeply our mental habit patterns become ingrained. It’s like the more one smokes cigarettes the more deeply the addiction becomes. So, the earlier we begin, the easier this whole yoga process is.
I started this blog talking about easy poses in yoga for one person. I’ve ended up addressing our mental state because ultimately that’s where this is headed. Even the American Medical Association is now telling us that most physical diseases are coming from mental stress. So, if you truly want to be healthy, you need to address your mental state. The yogis of old knew this which is why the largest factor in this practice is meditation.
So, whether you are interested in easy one-person yoga poses or difficult postures, remember: it’s all difficult when starting to deal with the mind but the sooner the better. And let me tell you one last thing: IT’S WORTH IT!
Here is a “one person yoga pose” that we call Triangle Pose (see picture). Being very gentle is emulated in this picture. Once in the pose, very gently try to lengthen all four limbs and your spine while breathing full fluid breaths. Do not hold your breath or strain. If you are straining, back off.
After 5 to 10 deep breaths, perform the other side, honoring any differences you may feel as there have never been two sides of your body completely the same. Voila, you just did a one-person yoga pose!