If you’ve been around for awhile you may be wondering about the meaning behind YogaPlay. After nearly a decade of teaching yoga, I’ve found that most of my learning has come from a genuine curiosity in the body’s abilities. There was a time when I took my practice so-very-seriously and tried to walk the narrow path of what I thought a yogi should be and do. But somewhere along the line, I decided to throw out the rule book and walk my own path and do my very best to enjoy every minute of it.
YogaPlay was born out of a relentless desire to challenge my body within the realm of yoga and this long honored practice. It also came from late Friday nights spent in open gym space with the best of friends, you could think of it in a similar fashion as when acro-yogis get together and jam. I would meet up with some of my nearest and dearest friends here in the Bay Area to play, we had unstructured time where we could share what we’re working on, the successes and challenges, and figure them out altogether. We’d laugh, fall, sweat, and do it all over again every Friday. The best word to describe our yoga practice during these times is play. It didn’t take much time for the catchy phrase YogaPlay to take hold. Now whenever I’m stepping onto my mat whether it’s for class planning or my own personal practice, I give myself permission to play.
This sense of curiosity and wonderment is something I strive to infuse in each of the classes I teach—I feel that I would be doing a disservice to my students if they came to rely upon me to always guide them through everything, instead I encourage my students to dig deep into the sensations that arise during our practices together, to veer off course and explore what might be coming up, to stay after class and ask questions or even to try variations to find what works for them in their body.
If we haven’t yet practiced together, whether in-person or online, I encourage you to let go of the coulds, shoulds, and woulds. I encourage you to step onto you mat with a fresh perspective, arriving in the present moment. Remove any thoughts of limitations. Remain open to possibility and light in your approach to your practice, bring this sense of play and joy into your body and practice then begin to notice the life changing shifts that take place.
If you’d like to sport a reminder to play, feel free to check out our latest YogaPlay merch available under the shop tab, as a special thank you my blog readers get 15% off your entire order using code: YOGAPLAY15.
In deep love,
Paige