“Place your hands firmly against the wall, middle fingers pointing up, fingers well spread. Place your feet under your hips. Find your distance. Using the pressure of your hands on the wall, turn the inside of your forearms downward while at the same time spinning your triceps in. Open your elbows.
“Now, maintaining that action, stretch back through your hips. Elongate your spine and make your back straight.”
Suddenly the teacher’s voice changes. The zen is gone; it’s time to get serious: “Ok. Hold that. I’m coming around with a stick to let you feel how straight your back is – or isn’t.”
I hold and breathe. In and out. In and out. Spin here, stretch there, stay straight, hold…
I have been practicing yoga for 15 years or so. There have been times that I couldn’t get myself to classes regularly but still practiced at home (hello, year in France) , and others where I couldn’t even practice at home regularly (I’m looking at you, baby #2), but I still count about 15 years.
I love yoga. I find both peace and challenge in my classes, some space that I can’t create when I’m not stretching my body and concentrating on my breath. Yoga is one of my mainstays.
And yet, second semester last year, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was tired and stressed out and my body ached. These are all the reasons a person SHOULD go to yoga, but I ended up not going, and I was the worse for it. this year I decided to recommit. I hired a girl down the street to pick the kids up after school on Wednesdays and enlisted my husband to get home a little earlier.
Excited, I went online to sign up for my class. The scheduled loaded and I was suddenly paralyzed: My class is level 2/3 at 7:30, but at 5:45 there was a level 1 class.
Yoga teachers often talk about going back to the basics, about how there really is no level 2 or 3. There are just the poses, our body and our breath. Teachers remind us that even an experienced practitioner can learn from a level 1 class. After all, despite appearances, the challenge in yoga is mostly internal. Still, level 1 after 15 years? What would I learn? Was I just looking for the easy way out? I stared at the schedule for a long moment, and I signed up for level 1.
The first two classes have been both freeing and challenging. Even the simplest of instructions have nuances, and now I hear the teacher’s instructions anew. Concentrating on the foundation of poses I’ve been doing for years is helping me make changes that I never dared to in my other classes. I don’t cut corners to get into complex poses because I’m busy working on all the tiny complexities of the basic poses. Plus, in level 1, cheating shows. My teacher might not comment on a lifted heel when every other bit of me is twisted into a new space, but there’s nowhere to hide when I’m working on Uttihita Trikonasa (Triangle Pose) or Virabhadrasana 2 (Warrior 2).
Level 1 means I’m letting go of expectations about what I should or shouldn’t be able to do and accepting what my body can actually do. It means admitting that there are things I’ve been faking for years. It means practicing concentrating on myself and not others. (I stink at this, in case you’re wondering). As it turns out, level 1 is hard.
So I breathe in, I breathe out, and I grow. And I’m ready for the next class.
Persistence and Pedagogy 
I am a trained yoga instructor and loved reading your pose directions at the top of the post! I even took a few deep breaths while I was reading.
Thank you for passing that one to me!
Resetting can look like so many different things. I am glad you honored where you are and started again.
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I’m kind of proud of myself. Usually I’m very much about looking ahead, but recently I’ve started intentionally looking at where I am. Would love to take your yoga class – maybe someday!
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Well if we are ever at the same professional event we will have to do yoga and write slices together in a cafe!
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Good for you, good for your body! sometimes it’s the unanticipated shift that offers a relief we didn’t realize we needed. I am still mystified by the opening pose trying to imagine how it is actually done. Deeply appreciate the insights from returning to level 1: digging into the complexities of the poses, no cheating, savoring release from the burden of expectation. May you enjoy your heartfelt return to the basics and core of your practice.
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We don’t level people! You can always make something harder with the task or the level of independence you have! Harder is not always better. Good for you – stick with it and have fun!
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Thanks for sharing how much you’ve learned by returning to Level 1 yoga. I really appreciated your insights and how you were open to the experience and all it had to offer you. I guess a step back to basics can move us a step (or two) forward in unexpected ways. Enjoy!
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Sounds like you are getting just what you need out of the class!
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Well, some of us are just intimidated by yoga in general. I’m impressed by anyone who can follow the directions, so I stick to Headspace with no one watching. I do think it’s a good lesson for all of us, though. It’s similar to what I say to kids when they say they want to reread a book from two years ago: “The book may be the same, but the person reading has changed…a lot.”
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This is the part where I actually winced, when the teacher said, “I’m coming around with a stick…” That’s powerful writing 🙂 And reflecting!
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Going back to the basics. It was neat to read about what you learned here. Pretty valuable lessons that I’m sure we could apply to other areas as well. 15 years of yoga is pretty impressive!
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My yoga class is not called Level 1; it’s “easy stretch” which is not always easy in my book. But I love having a yoga practice. I’m not consistent, though, and I wish I could be. Too much on the proverbial plate. This post grabbed me from the start. I need to remember to share with my students that they can start with a quote.
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I loved how you started this post with teacher directions! I have found that I really like (and need) yoga too, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to consistently get to yoga classes. Thanks for writing about this!
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I have a home practice (would never be able to motivate myself to leave my house for yoga), and I really love the Yoga with Adriene channel on YouTube. I used to use her videos only on “light” days because hey, I was a Level 2 or Level 3 yoga practitioner! No Level 1 for me! But I have a real appreciation now for what happens when I’m doing the “easy” yoga poses because the harder work of yoga, for me, is being present and still, and the “easier” yoga videos, physically, are often much, much harder for me mentally.
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Exactly. Really inhabiting the space and time that I’m in can be a challenge – level 1 is making me pay attention!
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