Online yoga practice is not a substitute for face-to-face practice. It is a different experience, with its own purposes and effects. We explain when it is especially advisable to practice this discipline at home.
The coronavirus pandemic brought with it the rise of online yoga classes. Despite this, many people still wonder if learning and practicing yoga through the screen is as warm and useful as doing it in person. After a year and a half teaching yoga online – and 30 years doing it in person – I can guarantee that it is.
Even, on some occasions, opting for an online practice may be a better option. In this article I explain the advantages of opting for this type of online learning and in which three cases it can be optimal to opt for it.
If you want to practice yoga at home, find out about the yoga initiation course with Eva Roca from Escuela Cuerpomente.
1. IF YOUR GOAL IS INTERNALIZATION
Although yoga is a practice that invites us to internalize, we know, from experience, that attending yoga classes in person has an important social dimension, also a source of learning.
However, we all – even when one defines oneself as social or extroverted – go through stages in which we value and tend to silence, solitude or intimacy. This is only harmful, as would the need for activity or company, if they become immovable. What keeps us in a healthy and vital state is the possibility of going from one state to another, walking between inside and outside, exploring ourselves in our different facets and possibilities.
The importance of enjoying the social experience or, on the contrary, the experience of intimacy, will determine that we feel more attracted to the practice of yoga face-to-face or online.
To walk the paths that lead us inward, we need to feel safe. Therefore, in practices that are oriented to self-knowledge, the possibility of being in an intimate environment is key.
These internal journeys sometimes involve crying, laughing, lethargy or venting of all kinds. And being sheltered from the familiar helps.
Of course, there can be an intimate atmosphere in person, but it requires a degree of trust with the group that sometimes takes time to build. And that, sometimes, is altered by the incorporation of new people to the group.
In the online experience it will be enough to close microphone and camera to access a greater degree of privacy when you need it.
When going inward is a priority need, online practice will offer you the possibility of graduating your interaction with the group without the feeling of being socially inadequate. And if the situation at home allows it, you can prolong your state of internalization as much as you want.
2. IN TIMES OF GREAT FATIGUE
Have you noticed the wear and tear of going at a pace that is not yours, whether faster or slower? Have you ever been tired or after a day with little activity or have you felt splendid after a busy day? This happens because what really exhausts us is going against what we really need.
The source of rest par excellence is in the moments in which we feel completely free to attend to our own needs.
Being at home, present and at the same time invisible, can make it easier for us to discover the path that the body proposes to us, our most urgent needs, and follow it.
In person it also happens, but for some people it can take a while. How many times would you have continued to enjoy a posture and changed to go at the marked pace? And how many others have you gone beyond your strength to follow the instructions?
This is because we inevitably respond to the social norms, we have associated with group bodily activities. And these rules are usually governed by certain times and rhythms, which do not necessarily coincide with ours.
The group gives us many advantages, but if you need a deep rest, discovering what your rhythm is to follow it is a priority. And online makes it easy for you.
3. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOUR “SOCIAL SELF”
We know that it is not the same to practice alone as to practice in a group. And neither is it to practice in a face-to-face group than in an online group. The face-to-face group makes it easy for us to observe how we change when we are in the society we know and have integrated.
Instead, the online experience offers us an opportunity to discover how we are in a different type of interaction than usual. As if we were traveling to another culture. But in this case, we can graduate much more easily our degree of exposure and observe ourselves in depth. Do I show myself or not? Does showing me do me good or not? What do I keep private when I have the possibility to do so? What do I dare to do when I don’t have to worry about maintaining the degree of intimacy I need?
FIND OUT MORE…
If you are interested in going deep into the reflection on virtuality and presence in online educational practices, I recommend:
- The chapter “Le virtuel n’est pas’ que digital” from the book La sagesse des larmes, by Ginette Paris
- Study “The sense of presence in virtual education and the social representation of online teaching” by Cinthya Gabriela Castro Larroulet, published in the e-cognitas Magazine, December 2018, number 1.