A Touchy Subject
Unless you specifically request not to be touched, hands on is part of the teaching process. At the beginning I was not used to being touched in order to learn something. Actually being touched in general was not something I was used to. I did not hug my friends or touch them when we met. Hugging my kids was about as far as I went. Or if I had a few beers I’d hug just about anyone or anything – ha – I’m Canadian eh!
Touching someone as a teacher is used to help alleviate the pressure, guide or manoeuvre, or bind someone in an asana that is difficult to hold. An example would be Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing dog). A teacher would apply a slight push to the sacrum to alleviate the weight or pressure on the wrists. Another example is a bind. This is most lightly to happen for Marichyasana C which is almost halfway though the primary series. The teacher will basically help twist you into position and hold you there while you take five breaths. Some will lock and hold you there others may wrap their arms around you and bind you in position.
I like being touched and as long as it’s consensual I would think most of us do. However I know that some don’t like being touched.
I have friends, believe it or not it’s true, a couple that we are friends with. I know the wife better as she was a co-worker but more of a friend of my wife. I know the husband but I’d say we’re not buddies – we don’t hang out. Once they came to visit us here in Victoria and at the airport I hugged the wife and I go to hug the husband and he pulls back and says oh we’re doing this – I still hugged him – maybe I shouldn’t have.
If I may take this jump; touching has changed how I view the world and this is due to Ashtanga and those whom taught / touched me. Quite a statement but it’s true. It’s a connection that can’t be achieved any other way.
I don’t want to wade into how touch can be bad – and I’ve had my own experience with that. However I’ve been lucky that all the touching I’ve had as a student has been good and appropriate. I’m sure that is not the case for all students in the yoga world.
I can remember a story, not sure if I read it or someone told me, but. This person would come to yoga every day. She had no one in her life and was alone. She went to classes mostly because at class she had that physical human connection. A yoga teacher would lay hands on her to help in some asanas. It was an important and necessary ingredient for her well being.
I love being touched if it’s consensual and my yoga experiences have all been that way no mater the sex of the teacher.
I know this topic can be a touchy subject, word play intended, but human contact for me has been an awakening of my own connection to the universe. Just holding a hand can open up an entirely new dimension to the vast openness of possibilities. No matter who’s hand it is on the other side of the hold. But some hands contain so much more information and provide a direct pathway to that abundance.
Sometimes the words that come out when I write this blog surprise me, just like the previous ones. It makes me think there’s quite a vastness going on in my head that I have absolutely no control over.
I would hope that kind of vastness is also available to you.
Yoga brought me here and I’m so happy that’s how it makes me feel. Ya I know.
Be safe