The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Asana and Alignment

 I would not consider myself an alignment teacher. Its not that I don't believen alignment, I just don't believe there is any cookie cutter method that makes sense for all bodies when it comes to physically cueing our bodies to move into, stay in, and move out of a pose.
 Our bodies are beautifully complicated. And in that complication comes the beauty of why yoga tends to work so well when its not aggressively approached. Asana should be used as a tool to allow us as individuals to become more aware of our self and the space we take up.
  Asana as a practice should result in us being a little more awake about the impact we have on our evironment, both near and far. Asana as a practice should help the mind to be more stable and allow us to process through the fluctuations of the mind with increasing ease.
 Asana is a tool to learn about you. Asana should never be a cookie cutter shape that we attempt to stuff practitioners into.
 I find more important than most 'alignment' principles regularly cued in yoga is for teachers to become aware of compression and tension in joints and how that affects range of motion and how that translates into different postures.
  If the cue that your using as a teacher or practitioner is repeatedly not working than the cue has to change, not the body.  What works for one, may not work for another. All the variations of a posture are completely legal, but not all are going to benefit the individual, some variations may benefit one and seriously injure another.
  Above all exercise discernment when teaching and practicing, keep your student and yourself as safe as you possibly can.

  What cues have you struggled with?
  What cues have you really enjoyed?



Maitri