Yoga practice as community

After attending class this week, I noticed that my practice space does promote a sense of community.  After reading Smith and Nevrin I began to connect how my space contributes to more of a community sense. A sense of community can be felt during practice when a group of people come together for the same purpose in order to practice together. A sense of community, according to Nevrin, is felt in such a way because “we are affected to and respond to each other’s movements and emotions as well as bodily expressions and we enter shared rhythms together.” Once we start to feel the sense of empowerment as a group, this could contribute to that sense of community. A sense of community could be developed when we as a group practice the physical yoga, but also the “emotional intimacy and nearness” of yoga as Nevrin pointed out. It is important to feel a sense of community interaction among the practice because it will help everybody feel more at ease during the practice. The importance of practicing as a group can help each individual attain more of a stress free environment. As Nevrin also pointed out, the social interaction of yoga creates an “escape attempt from an individual’s own life.”  

            Creating a sense of community is important for the studio because it may contribute to more of an enlightened practice. For example, Pattabhi Jois links his practices to heat. He believes that the more internal heat being produced, the more of an effort that is produced from it. The ritual heat produced, according to Smith, is “linked to personal transformation and spiritual refinement.” By coming together as a community and practicing Ashtanga yoga, we are able to come together and create that sense of discipline, or tapas, as a community by generating each of our internal heat. Therefore, creating more of a sense of a shared community. The purpose of the tapas is to purify and strengthen the body through the use of sweating it out. The more people that show up to a practice, maybe the more heat that is generated throughout the room; creating more of a sense of purification as a community.

Personally I feel a small sense of belonging to the community in which I practice at which is at Stockton. However, I feel as if the groups that come together to practice it here are very small, and, many like myself, inexperienced still. However, after doing an Iyenger class on Tuesday and getting a sense of this type of yoga, I can understand how one can feel that sense of community bond.