Why I Love Iyengar Yoga, part 1

I moved to Cincinnati on July 15 of this year. A short time after I moved I surprised myself when I decided I wanted to incorporate a blog into my yoga site. I mean, I am not a blogger or even a big writer for that matter. I read other blogs only occasionally and am apt to forget they even exist if the author didn’t send me a notice or post updates on Facebook. Blogs are almost as cliche as yoga and a blog about yoga is the biggest cliche of all time. All this said…I am starting a blog. But why? The answer to this question is not exactly clear to me yet. (perhaps it will be by the time I am done writing here).

I think the impulse to start keeping a blog came after visiting many yoga studios in Cincinnati. When I was planning my move here I decided I would take a class at every yoga studio in town – to introduce myself to yoga studio owners, to meet lots of yogis of all traditions in an effort to build up my yoga community (and admittedly to network for possible teaching opportunities). So I have been doing just that. Slowly I am making my way down the list. Reading their websites, emailing the owners, and then scheduling a class to attend. I have not come to the end of the list, not even come close. There’s a lot of yoga here. There’s a lot of yoga everywhere.

Visiting even less than half of the studios on my list has been enlightening on many levels. The classes were very diverse in their approaches. Some studios heated the room, others did not. Some said a chat at the beginning, others did not. Some studios were fancy, others were not. All the teaching skills were varied. Naturally after seeing how other methods are teaching/leading their yoga classes I compared their approach to Iyengar Yoga. In the end I can say that no one is right, no method is better than the other. Everyone is offering yoga. However, the experience has reconfirmed my love and dedication to Iyengar Yoga.