The beauty of one-to-one yoga

Walking out of a yoga class and feeling like it gave you exactly what you needed — physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually — can sometimes be hit and miss. While the energy of a group yoga class can leave one feeling warm and yoga-loved-up, there’s Beauty in stepping onto the yoga mat in your own space and knowing it will be a practice tailored to your specific needs on that particular day. No distractions from other students, no pressure to work beyond your limits, just space and time to allow yoga to create a better understanding of your body and mind.

More and more people are starting to enjoy yoga in the way it was traditionally taught: in a one-to-one setting. By personalising a practice with private sessions, every practitioner can explore a completely new side of yoga and, ideally, reach a new level of awareness. With the right teacher, working one-to-one can give a beginner the guidance needed without them feeling overwhelmed, and intermediate or advanced practitioners the tools needed to deepen their practice.

According to Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, sometimes referred to as the godfather of yoga, “Yoga must be tailored to suit the student, not the other way around.” As the teacher of BKS Iyengar and the late Pattabhi Jois, Krishnamacharya played a major role in bringing yoga to the West. Today, his legacy continues through the work of his son TKV Desikachar, who founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandarim (KYM) in Chennai, India, in honour of his father.

Krishnamacharya believed a yoga practice must take one’s personal, emotional and mental needs into account and that these needs may change from day to day. The only way he felt he could teach with integrity was by respecting the uniqueness of every individual.

Rather than pool a group of beginners into a class, Krishnamacharya insisted on working one-on-one, accommodating one’s age, lifestyle and ability. By working in this manner with a teacher, “Yoga serves the needs of the individual and does so through inviting transformation rather than by giving information,” Desikachar wrote in The Heart of Yoga.

It’s a refreshing thought. A yoga class can encourage discipline in giving us no choice but to commit to a scheduled class. A private practice, however, can encourage a different kind of commitment. It brings forth an opportunity to truly investigate our own practice and take responsibility for our own transformation. This can reveal a unique set of needs specific to the individual, be they physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.

Physical

Ultimately, what we are seeking from our yoga practice is change. It can be as simple as changing the flexibility of our hamstrings or as complex as a transformation in our spiritual approach to life.

In the West, emphasis is often on the physical aspect of yoga and, with a consistent practice, most of us have experienced a shift at some level here. With its attention to detail, a private practice often makes it easier to work through these physical changes and challenges with safety and awareness.

Challenge intelligently

Learning how to understand, trust and love our bodies can be an empowering thing, which is why working through physical challenges in yoga can have wonderful implications for daily life.

If we place too much emphasis on challenging our physical limitations, our practice can become driven by the outer manifestations of the asana (posture) and the essence of yoga becomes lost. We can forget that yoga is about unifying the body with the breath to create ease on the mind and should have the qualities of sthira and sukha — steadiness and comfort.

By working individually with the right teacher, yoga can become challenging in an accessible and intelligent way. Rather than flying through a fast vinyasa class without stability, a private practice might give us the opportunity to learn about safe transitioning between poses and initiating movement from the core. Instead of succumbing to our egos and throwing ourselves into headstands with the rest of the class, despite having neck or shoulder injuries, we might take a step back and work with a restorative inversion such as viparita karani pose (legs up the wall).

In this way, the comfort level is there to work with patience and acceptance of our capabilities for that given day, to ensure we are not practising in a harmful way. And in finding a safe practice tailored to our own ability and needs, yoga can help to prevent and heal injuries instead of causing them.

Honouring injuries and health conditions

When taught in a therapeutic manner, yoga has helped heal lower back pain, knee injuries, sacroiliac joint dysfunction and many other problems. It has helped alleviate symptoms for those suffering from conditions such as vertigo, Parkinson’s disease and fibromyalgia and in situations where the needs of the student are so specific that one-to-one sessions are extremely beneficial.

Regardless of one’s ability, the same set of asanas will be different for each individual. Paschimottansana (seated forward bend) may feel like a deep hamstring stretch for Wanda, a deep lower back stretch for Ted and, in more serious circumstances, may worsen the pain for Ruth, who suffers from a herniated disc at L5.

The right teacher should take from different styles of yoga and teach with the modifications needed to ensure the practice is safe and appropriate for the student. To ensure the practice is working to improve quality of life, it may mean advising someone recovering from knee surgery away from the Ashtanga practice, which is loaded with padmasana (lotus position), towards a practice focused on building strength and stability for the knee joint.

Working with a teacher who is knowledgeable on anatomy and alignment can help to heal and prevent further problems and might also incorporate the use of props and modifications.

Mental and emotional

The physical changes brought about through yoga often provide a smooth transition into other chapters of the practice. We break through old habits, our bodies do what they’ve never done before and, by releasing tight areas in the body, we can unblock old emotions and suppressed memories to find ourselves welcoming the world with bigger hearts and less baggage.

The introspection and space needed to foster these changes to our mental and emotional states are sometimes harder to come by in large group classes. A private practice in a comfortable setting with a knowledgeable and trustworthy teacher can make way for a deeper personal experience in yoga.

Personal guidance from a teacher can also help us make sense of the deeper changes that may otherwise go unnoticed in our regular practice. Isobel might master pincha mayurasana (forearm stand) and perceive it as a glorious physical breakthrough, the result of building core and upper body strength. Her teacher, however, may see it as a result of unleashing fear and negative thoughts, bringing her to a place of freedom and trust.

With the knowledge that the quality of the breath affects our state of mind and vice versa, a teacher can pay close attention to a student’s breathing patterns in a one-to-one setting to gain an understanding of his or her mental state in the asana. If a student’s breath is fast and rapid, it may indicate feelings of anxiousness or stress. By detecting this, the teacher may suggest modifications, pranayama or meditation to create a slower and deeper breath, an indication of a more balanced emotional state.

Once on the path of yoga, consistency is a wonderful habit; getting stuck and dependant on a certain approach isn’t. With a private practice and the right teacher, we can avoid rigidity and make way for personal growth by recognising the impact our physical state and emotions have on our wellbeing.

Spiritual

While yoga can transform our spiritual approach to life, it does not mean one must become a devout Hindu, Buddhist or vegetarian. Some yoga classes may communicate the opposite and leave one feeling pressured and confused.

A yoga practice should be as spiritual as one wishes and a student may feel more comfortable exploring this by working privately with a teacher. Known for advocating freedom of choice, TKV Desikachar avoids imposing religious rules on his students and, if he feels it’s appropriate, will even ask a student to practise yoga by taking a long walk or listening to music.

We might practise yoga out of devotion to a guru or we might have our own set of personal beliefs that bring about a deeper spiritual connection. With the right teacher, we should feel comfortable with our beliefs and also feel safe if we are delving into a new field of spirituality.

Finding the right teacher

Research carefully to find the right yoga teacher for a private practice. Make sure you feel comfortable enough to work closely with them, be open with them and perhaps even have them in your home.

In his book Yoga as Medicine, Timothy McCall MD lists six things to look for in a yoga teacher and cautions against relying on teachers to diagnose symptoms — leave that to the health professionals. McCall recommends looking at:

Training. Enquire where the teacher has trained and for how long. As a minimum, they should have completed at least 200 hours of training and, in addition, they should take part in ongoing studies. When there is a need for yoga therapy, the teacher should have an understanding of anatomy and physiology and be familiar with contraindications.

Experience. Ask how many years’ experience they have and whether it’s a full-time profession for them. If relevant, find out if they have experience working with your style of yoga, injury or condition. If they have a background in any sort of physical therapy, such as Feldenkrais or Alexander Technique, they probably have a good understanding of the body and movement.

Flexibility of approach. In his book, McCall offers the wisdom of the late Mary Dunn, who was a respected senior Iyengar teacher in New York. “Good teachers look at what you’re doing and teach from what they see, not just what they know,” Dunn said. Look for a teacher who observes and asks about your needs, experience and circumstances and who teaches according to these needs as opposed to a standardised approach.

They practise what they preach. Only a truly dedicated teacher can be the catalyst for transformation in a student. Find out the consistency and nature of his or her practice and ask if they practise asana, pranayama and meditation. McCall says the best teachers are also lifelong students and take part in ongoing study such as anatomy workshops, reading and working with more senior teachers.

They motivate you to practise. Find a teacher who can motivate you to keep a steady practice and one who makes you feel listened to and respected. The student-teacher relationship is critical, especially in a one-to-one setting, to provide a safe setting for transformations of every kind to take place.

Leanne Wong is based in Sydney and New York, teaching yoga and writing. For more information, visit www.karunanyc.com.