Two ways to practice yoga

I have discovered that there are two ways to practice yoga - mindfully and single-mindedly.

This observation is hardly revolutionary. What makes it blogworthy is the fact that I finally came to understand the difference during yesterday's practice.

My yoga neighbour was a young woman in her early 20s. She was petite and slim, and thus better able to move into the harder variations of the asanas. Except whenever a pose put her in my direct line of vision, I couldn't help noticing how she forced her body into harder and harder variations by rocking herself further down/forward/back. She never relaxed into the pose.

I'm not even sure she was breathing. It was like a yoga triathlon. I'm trying not to judge her practice, but it definitely made me understand something about mine.

I don't want to approach yoga as if it were Me-Against-My-Body. I'm not doing yoga (primarily) for the physical exertion. I practice yoga to quiet my mind.

My objectives during a yoga practice are two-fold:

• Stop comparing my performance to that of my fellow yogis
• Don't force my body to comply. Simply breathe and try to find a little more space if I can.

I'm not saying that I consistently achieve these objectives. But I keep them in mind whenever I do yoga, and strive towards getting closer with each practice.

All that being said, next month I'm doing two 3-hour inversion workshops with Allison Ulan at Ashtanga Yoga Montreal.

Because I want to do something cool. And I don't want to fight my way up every time.