Yoga thought (again)

I took a yoga class recently that I didn't love. I don't think that the teacher is a bad teacher*, so I want to figure out what exactly it was that I didn't like.

1. Tempo. I like to sweat and strain during yoga. But I recognize that sometimes a more restorative practice is appropriate, so I don't think that this is really where the problem lay.

2. Imagery. The teacher likes to use words like 'luscious' and 'juicy' a lot. A LOT. (i.e. a luscious breath, a juicy om.) These images/concepts just don't work for me poetically. In fact, they flip the switch that turns on my inner literary critic, and then I start thinking about what imagery I think would work better (fire/heat/energy, basically), and what things luscious/juicy/etc. actually make me think of (mmm, peaches), and I lose track of the practice. Which is totally not the teacher's fault - it's mine for being so reflexively analytical/critical about language.

3. New agey cheese. In Warrior 2, being exhorted to 'hold on and reach for the life you want!' In Kali pose, being told that Kali (i.e. eternal feminine principle/the Destroyer) would want us to 'play' and be 'courageous and daring' - I know damned little about Hindu theology but I think power rather than cheekiness when I think of Kali. Probably this kind of thing irritates me b/c I'm a little abashed by my own new agey tendencies right now (I mean, writing about yoga/retelling my own story/etc.? Please.) But also what I like about yoga is its total focus on what's going on right now - I want to improve my ability to focus and be in the moment, I don't want to worry about some imaginary life floating beyond my fingertips. And I think of Hindu gods as terrible, powerful, and awe-inspiring, you know, deities - not cutesy little signposts for soft urbanites looking to 'self-actualize'. (n.b., it takes one to know one?)

* Ok, secretly I kind of do. Mostly b/c I was in a class taught by this teacher once where the person next to me was clearly a beginner, and the teacher made NO effort to give more detailed directions or help out AT ALL. But this is different from why I personally didn't really enjoy the class.