A defensive driving course can help you avoid ending up like this.
The car is way too close to the one in front of it. It is weaving back and forth trying to find an opening to pass. The horn sounds long and loud as the driver shakes his fist and shouts insults. Finally there is an opening and with a deafening roar the car swings into the other lane and roars past, The driver makes a rude gesture at the car he is passing.
Bob was required to complete a defensive driving course before he could take his driver’s test to keep him from behaving just like that driver in front of him. Defensive driving is a mindset you adopt before you hit the road. The purpose of the course is to teach you how to stay safe while travelling from Point A to Point B. After all, there are plenty of crazies out there to watch out for while you are driving.
Everybody that starts a yoga practice should be required to take a Yoga Defensive Driving course for their yoga practice to protect them from the crazy driver that is within themselves.
What is Yoga Defensive Driving
The Yoga Defensive Driving course protects you from yourself. It teaches you three important lessons that will reduce the likelihood that you will injure yourself during your yoga class.
The course has three lessons that combine to protect you from yourself:
- Finding your Edge
- Using good alignment
- Controlling your ego
The first of these lessons, Finding your Edge, is an important lesson that will go a long way to protect you from injuring yourself.
Finding your Edge
The Edge is an interesting place to be and it takes a little practice to find it and stay near it without injuring yourself.
Your Edge is that comfortable but challenging place to be in a yoga pose. Your muscles are pushed to their maximum comfortable limit but not beyond.
You have not reached your Edge if your muscles are relaxed and not being challenged. You have gone beyond your Edge if your muscles are screaming that you are in danger of tearing them.
When you have found your Edge there is no fear. In fact your Edge is a place that you could comfortably stay in for a long time.
The interesting thing about your Edge is that it will gradually move the longer you stay at it. Your muscles will relax a little bit over time and you will be able to go a little further into a pose. The opposite is true if you have gone beyond your Edge.
Once you find your Edge you have completed the first lesson in your Yoga Defensive Driving course and it time to move on to the next lesson about alignment.
Using good alignment
This second lesson of the Yoga Defensive Driving course helps you to protect your muscles and joints from injury. Your yoga teachers are your most important asset in this lesson. They will help you to get your body into the correct alignment.
Your teacher will give you modifications to a pose that works with your current range of motion and flexibility. These modifications will keep you in good alignment and prevent you from trying to go to a place where you could hurt yourself.
With good alignment the strain and stretching on your muscles, ligaments and joints will be in balance. You are less likely to injure yourself once you learn this alignment.
Even when you think you are doing a pose correctly your teacher can see that your alignment needs to change and show you where everything should be.
Having good alignment and finding your Edge are two important lessons but, controlling your ego, the final lesson is just as important.
Controlling your ego
For Bob, this was the most challenging lesson of the three. Learning to control his ego and admit that he could not do a pose as good as everyone else took him a long time. Bob is now comfortable with and accepting of his ability in each pose. Some of the poses are really easy and other poses are quite challenging.
Your ego is a dangerous thing. It can sneak up on you and cause you to do dangerous things at any time. Suddenly you will discover your ego taking over and pushing your beyond your Edge as you are about to reach a threshold in a pose. You have been waiting so long for your flexibility to improve and you are so close that your ego takes over. This can happen at any time and it does not matter how long you have been doing yoga. You always have to be on guard and keep your ego in check.
All three of these lessons in the Yoga Defensive Driving course are very important to your continued safety in yoga class.
Why use Yoga Defensive Driving
Once you have learnt the three lessons of the Yoga Defensive Driving course you will enjoy many benefits.
You will avoid injuring yourself because you are staying at your Edge, using good alignment and keeping your ego in check.
You will reduce your stress levels because you are working within your current limitations and not trying to be the best in the room at a particular pose. You have discovered that you are really good at some poses and that other poses are really difficult and that is okay. One day the difficult poses will become easier.
You will have increased enjoyment from your yoga practice. You take pleasure in the progress you have made so far and realize that with steady practice that you will improve. You like the changes that you have seen in your body already.
Is Yoga Defensive Driving only for new people?
The most important group of people that need this course is the people new to yoga. It is during the first six months of their
yoga practice that they are most likely to injure themselves. The Yoga Defensive Driving course will teach them the skills that they need to protect themselves.
If you have been doing yoga for a long time remember the lessons that you learnt during the Yoga Defensive Driving course.
When you are reaching a new threshold in a pose remember the lessons from the course and continue to work safely towards that threshold rather than throwing caution to the wind and going for it.
It can get very frustrating when you have been stuck for a long time in a pose and have not made any progress. Remember your the Yoga Defensive Driving lessons and continue slowly down the path. It may be time to talk to your teacher about trying something different to help you to make progress with that challenging pose.
Summary
The Yoga Defensive Driving course like the course that Bob took before he got his driver’s license helps you get safely from Point A to Point B. The difference between these two courses is that the crazies are inside of you rather than in that other car.
Learn the three lessons on the Yoga Defensives Driving course and you will have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable yoga practice without any accidents or injuries.
Next Step
Ask your teacher to help you learn the three lessons of the Yoga Defensive Driving course.
If you found this article interesting, you can get more like it in the book Injury Free Yoga: The Sun Salute Series.
Additional Reading
To find out more about your edge read how Goldilock and the 3 bears find the edge.
To find out more about injury free yoga have a look at these many articles.
