Teaching Peace in Yoga Class

By Dr. Melissa West

In conjunction with the Global Mala Project designed to unite the worldwide yoga community on the UN International Peace Day (September 22, 2007) I have been inspired to teach yoga this fall through the mantra of yoga as peace in action. Naturally some questions arise: What is peace? How do you teach peace in a yoga class?

Although everybody seems to have an innate understanding of peace, it becomes a difficult state to describe. In the context of a global community peace is understood as the cessation of war. On an individual level peace can be described as calm, serene, silence, equilibrium and harmony.
Yoga naturally lends itself to a quest for peace. Yoga is a process of releasing dis-ease and tension in the body to quiet the mind for meditation. With yoga we can find peace within ourselves. Once the individual achieves peace in their own lives then the belief is that the state of serene, calm and harmony ripples out into the world influencing others.

How then do you teach peace in a yoga class?

Pranayama or breath practice lends itself to the quest for peace. Guide your students to slow down their breath and become aware of the peaceful rhythm of the inhalation and exhalation. Teach your students to passively accept their breath rather than force it to become deeper. You can be more literal about it as well encouraging students to draw peace into their body with each inhalation and release tension with each exhalation. Simply following the breath brings peace to the body and mind.

When leading guided relaxation help students to become aware of the spaces in their bodies where peace already exists. Then use breath and yoga postures to expand that feeling of peace throughout the class.

Mantras are a particularly effective way to shift our minds towards peace. I love Tich Nhat Hanh’s mantra from Peace is Every Step “Breathing in I calm my body, Breathing out I smile.” Tich Nhat Hanh teaches that peace and happiness are available to use if we can quiet our distracted minds.

The single pointed focus of yoga can help students move away from multi-tasking common in today’s frantic world. Yoga postures and breath practice naturally center our students in a way that calms the mind and emotions giving a sense of peace.

When teaching the physical postures remind students to come into the present moment and become fully aware of their bodies. The postures can be an opportunity to let go of the worries of the past and future and come into the present moment of the body.

Teaching peace in a yoga class means reminding students to move with “ease and steadiness” as Rodney Yee says. How many times have you observed students struggling to make their posture look like the photo in Iyengar’s Light on Yoga? Encourage students to find their own equilibrium and harmony in a pose, that state where peace exists. Yoga is not about the shape of the posture, rather the feeling of peace being cultivated in the body.

Consider the types of poses that you are teaching. Restorative poses such as legs up the wall can be fantastic for calming the central nervous system and bringing peace to the body. Balancing postures such as tree pose help the students to center themselves and come into the present moment.

Teaching peace in yoga class may simply mean adjusting the way you instruct your students. Move slowly, speak in a calm manner, create limitless space and time. Slow down your sun salutations taking extra time and breath. Remember in yoga we have “infinite time and no ambition.”

Teaching peace in yoga class may seem elusive or even unfeasible. However, if we return to the core premise of yoga described by Patanjali as a means to “chitta-vrtti-nirohdah” or cease the turnings of the mind we are reminded that we are teaching peace every time we teach a yoga class. As yoga teachers we simply must return our intention and single pointed focus to this goal.
Dr. Melissa West is a yoga teacher who is contributing to the Global Mala Project on September 22nd. For more information see http://melissawest.com/ and http://www.globalmala.org/