week 4

Based on the article by Nevrin, How might your practice be analyzed as a "ritual"? How does this ritual function to change the nature, impact or intensity of your practice experience? 

     This week, I went back to Ann Gray for more Hatha yoga. Alongside my Wednesday practice, was also Bikram style yoga in class with Kris Waldron. Both of these yoga styles have different asanas of their own, however, from both classes, my time on my mat has become sacred, regardless the pose or flow. As mentioned before, Ann's classroom setting was comfortable and inviting, while class with Kris took place in a college lecture room, with a border of desks surrounding us. What I've learned, however, is that it's not so much the aesthetics to the room you're in, but the ritualistic style in which the practice is carried out. 

     Ritual, according to class, is defined as repetitive, stylized, behavior or enactment for a purpose.The best way to exemplify this definition is to reflect on class with Kris. The importance of Bikram style yoga is the order of the asanas. There is a total of 26 standing and sitting postures, including breath poses that make up a class. Each Bikram style class does exactly the same 26 moves, in a sequential order. This is done repetitively, sequentially, and with purpose.I believe when done with purpose, realizing yoga itself is a ritual, changes the nature of one's own yoga practice. I feel in some way, I knew this all along, but wasn't quite understood, or revealed to me until yoga.

     As stated by Nevrin, "My point is that both reflective and prereflective responses are crucially important for how a practitioner will understand the nature and effects of yoga."

The importance of yoga, according to the article, is not the asanas across the styles of yoga, but rather what the practitioner feels. What is done with positive intentions, done with purpose with precision of order is what makes any yoga practice ritualized. This information could be groundbreaking and inspirational, for others, it might not be a big deal. Your ritual, is your own, and your practice is set at the pace of your experience.