Guest Post: Mary on Iyengar Yoga

We asked Mary Reese Folger to write a guest blog post about her experiences with the Iyengar (alignment-based) style of yoga.  Mary teaches Yoga Basics at the studio on Wednesdays at 6:00 PM.  Her practice and her teaching are deeply influenced by Iyengar mentods which makes her an excellent teacher for beginners and anyone looking to deepen their practice by expanding their knowledge of alignment.  Proper alignement maximizes the benefits of the poses and it helps to keep yoga practitioners from injuring themselves.  She has a lot of insightful things to say both in this post and in her classes.  Give her class a try and experience it first hand.     - Shannon

My practice is based in Iyengar yoga and especially its foundational focus on alignment.  The precision of physical alignment facilitates safe practice, especially for new practitioners and I find this essential as a yoga teacher. However, there is also a deeper dimension to physical alignment.  I find that as my conceptual understanding and kinesthetic experience of a certain pose deepens, I move closer to the core of yoga.

For example, as I continually focus my attention on the aspects of working in downward facing dog, i.e. “press into the hands, internally rotate forearms, stretch upper arms, move shoulder blades in, lengthen the spine, push the torso towards the legs, press the thighs back,  lift the knee caps, press the heels towards the floor. . . .” I begin to experience a mind/body awareness – an alignment that is not only physical.

The consistent and cyclical focus on alignment during yoga practice is a mindfulness meditation.  This awareness in the present moment is part of a larger alignment that manifests in yoga practice.  This larger alignment leads to an integration of one’s whole being, as well as an integration of one’s self with that which surrounds and is beyond one’s self.  In Light on Life, BKS Iyengar wrote that the goal of yoga “is nothing less than to attain the integrity of oneness – oneness with ourselves and as a consequence oneness with all that lies beyond ourselves.” 

I find that the more active and attentive I am to physical alignment during practice, the more I can let go into a larger awareness during Savasana.  For me, alignment with that which is beyond is the goal of yoga. But that is not separate from alignment with my body and breath and alignment with other human beings in the present moment.