How the Romance Novel Technique will improve your yoga practice dramatically

You can gain a whole lot from a private session with your yoga teacher, but they charge so much for a one hour private session that you can never afford it.

But there is a way that you can avoid that very expensive cost and get a lot of one on one attention from your yoga instructor. You need to use a very common romance novel technique.

In every romance novel the hero and heroine gaze deeply into each other eyes and everyone else in the room fades away from their awareness. They are in their own little world in the middle of the party.

An Ashtanga Mysore style practice is very much like this. You can get all of the benefits of a private session with your yoga teacher in a group class.

What is an Ashtanga Mysore style class

An Ashtanga Mysore is a group class where each person does their own practice. The teacher is not at the front of the class telling everyone when to move to the next pose. There are three things that make an Ashtanga Mysore class unique and give you all of the benefits of a private yoga class.

1. You move at your own pace
2. You do not wait for the teacher
3. You get individual help when you need it

How does an Ashtanga Mysore class do all this. Lets look at these 3 points in order starting with moving at your own pace.

1 – You move at your own pace

An Ashtanga yoga practice is done to the breath. You breathe in and you move, you breathe out and you move. Each person’s breath is slightly different. We all breathe at a slightly different rate. You may breathe faster or slower than the person next you.

In an Ashtanga Mysore class you move at your own pace to your own breath. Once you establish your breathing rhythm you will find that you become more focused on your practice and that the heat in your body will increase. Both of these factors will improve your yoga practice considerably.

Since you are moving to your own pace to your breath you are not waiting on the teacher.

2 – You do not wait for the teacher

This happens a lot in a yoga class: the yoga teacher will get involved in helping someone in the class and everyone else is waiting either in a yoga pose or between poses until the teacher is finished and ready to move on.

In an Ashtanga Mysore class you do not wait for the teacher before you move on to the next pose. It does not matter if the teacher is busy helping someone or not. When you have finished the current pose you move onto the next one in the sequence.

Being able to move on to the next pose when you are finished means that you will be able to keep your focus on your practice and since you are moving to the next pose without stopping and waiting for the teacher you will be able to keep the heat up in the body.

A hot body with a focused mind will significantly improve the quality and depth of your yoga practice.

These two points are very nice benefits of an Ashtanga Mysore practice, but you could get these same benefits from doing your practice at home instead of at the studio.

The next point is where the Romance Novel Technique comes in to play. You get the individual attention of the yoga teacher for as long as you need it and in a group class at that.

3 – Get individual help when you need it

In an Ashtanga Mysore class the yoga teacher is moving from person to person offering advice, guidance, adjustments and encouragement. When the teacher sees that you are struggling with a particular pose they will come over and help you with the pose.

Here you are in the middle of a group class and the teacher is giving you individual instruction and attention. This is the Romance Novel Technique in full force. There is only you and teacher interacting and no one else in the room matters.

One of the best things about this is that you do not have to feel guilty about the attention the teacher is paying to you. You are not holding up the class while the teacher is working with you.

No one is waiting for the teacher to finish helping you before they move on to the next pose.

I do not know the Ashtanga sequence of poses

This is everyone’s biggest fear before they first start an Ashtanga Mysore class. You do not know the sequence of poses well enough and you will forget what is the next pose.

There a few solutions to this:

1. The teacher is there and they will tell you which pose is next in the sequence. All you have to do is ask them.
2. Most teachers will allow you to use a cheat sheet that shows the sequence of poses on it. You can use this as a memory aid. You will find that have you have done a few Ashtanga Mysore classes that you will need the cheat sheet less and less and eventually you will not need it at all.

Asking for help

The most common mistake you will make in an Ashtanga Mysore class is forgetting to ask for help.

You can get the teachers attention in two ways.

1. Sit in full lotus or its equivalent pose and hold your hands together in front of your chest. The teacher will very quickly notice you sitting still and will come over to see how they can help you.
2. Use the above technique and include staring intently at the yoga teacher while they are working on one of the other students.

The combination of these two techniques work surprising well in my experience both as a teacher and a student in an Ashtanga Mysore class. You can really tell when someone is staring at you.

Summary

The Romance Novel Technique comes into full force in an Ashtanga Mysore class.

• You get to move at your pace
• You do not wait for the group to move on to the next posture
• You get the individual attention of the teacher

Next steps

Try an Ashtanga Mysore class the next time you come to the studio. You will be surprised at how much better your yoga practice will become.