I find this to be a really sad indictment of the Ashtanga community. It illustrates perfectly how and why Ashtanga has such a bad reputation, and why some people will never go near an Ashtanga class or have been put off by the teachers at the classes they have been to. This is really sad, because the practice itself is suitable for any body and any age or ability of practitioner. When taught by sensitive and inclusive teachers who realise its not all about the “perfect” asana, it is a beautiful practice which will transform your life. 

And what is the perfect Asana? Do you base it on how your teacher looks in the posture? Or how their teacher looked? Or do you base it on how Patthabi Jois or Sharath does the posture or on how Iyengar or Krishmacharya did them. Maybe you base it on the person on the mat next to you or that woman you saw on Instagram…. 

My first teacher, Rolf never demonstrated how to do the postures, he just talked us through them or manipulated our bodies into them. I never saw him demonstrate any postures. If you go to his website now there are only two very old pictures of him doing asana and they were taken in the shala while he was doing his practice, certainly no posing for photos. I like this approach, as every body is made differently. Some people are naturally more flexible than others. Body proportions also help or hinder ability to get into certain postures, the way your pelvis naturally tilts, injuries etc  … it goes on, nothing is right, nothing is wrong. We should be feeling how the posture works in our own bodies, is it comfortable and can you get a full deep breath? If not, then you need to wind back a little until it does feel comfortable and you can breathe fully. Otherwise you are just torturing yourself for no reason and that isn’t yoga. Therefore, I believe that the practice should be made to fit each individual body, not the other way round, fitting the body into the practice by any means –eg. fasting and forcing your way into the postures. 

Personally, I feel incredibly blessed to have practiced with senior teachers, with decades of their own practice behind them, who care more about awareness, breath and bandha than flexibility and being able to bind in postures. I have never been in a class where I felt judged because of my flexibility or body size. The communities I have practiced with have all been more interested in their own practice, rather than comparing to others in the group. This culture obviously comes down to the nurturing of the teacher.

However, I did meet one visiting teacher once who suggested that the reason I have never been able to bind in Supta Kurmasana on my own was because “some people overeat”! This was at a workshop, in a room full of mainly skinny women, and I am by no means overweight. I was horrified, as he knew nothing about my practice, or my eating habits! He had just flown in from Mysore though, and I think that amongst some of that community there is an unhealthy obsession with being very thin so that you can more quickly bind in postures and move on to the next one, and the next series…. There seems to be a competition for collecting postures and moving on to the advanced series, which obviously isn’t what yoga is about. 

This whole idea that you have to be really thin and flexible to do Ashtanga totally goes against the grain for me, as Ashtanga has helped me to recover from an eating disorder, by showing me the need for food to fuel your body. For me, it is not possible to do this practice and not fuel your body. It demands calories for energy and if you don’t eat properly you cannot have the energy for a full practice, as well as getting on with all of the other demands that life places on you. Then your practice slides, you become disillusioned, and you lose the essence of what yoga is about. It then becomes a tool with which to beat yourself up instead of the healing practice, designed to take you to a higher consciousness which it is supposed to be.  

Yoga is not about getting the perfect posture or getting through the next series, or being able to bind in Marichi D or supta kurmasana, or getting your leg behind your head or catching your heels in Kapotasana. Yoga is not about being thin and flexible. Yoga is not about taking pictures of perfect advanced postures on a beautiful beach. Yoga is not about the latest fashions in expensive leggings, and don’t get me wrong, I’m a total consumer when it comes to nice leggings that fit well, but this is a work very much in progress! Yoga is about raising your level of consciousness, about changing ingrained patterns of behaviour, and learning new and better ones. It’s about learning to act in situations rather that react. It is also a lifetimes work. There is no quick fix, especially when it comes to Ashtanga! The asanas are primarily a way of keeping the body fit and healthy so that you are able to sit for long periods of time in meditation.

I hope that my Ashtanga classes are inclusive of everyone, and that no one has ever felt like they are being judged because of their body type. I really believe that whatever your age or levels of fitness and flexibility, this amazing transformative practice can be modified to suit you, so that you too can use it to heal your body and raise your consciousness