Reflections on changing motivations: Yoga
… by Anita.
Initially ...
I first practiced yoga around December 2022. During the class, I developed the idea of wanting to become a yoga teacher someday. I lacked flexibility, but I used my strength from other areas to compensate and do the poses the teacher embodied in class. However, I didn’t realise that I was practicing with a certain type of postural imbalance, which resulted in some back pain at times. By the mid of the year 2023, I was already able to do crow pose and headstand. The arm balance crow pose and inversion headstand were the 2 challenging poses I had planned to attain in order to enrol for the Yoga Teacher Training programme coming up in September. I did not take a step back from my goals and commenced training as planned. As of today, I have been teaching for about 2 years and still practicing as a student. Now, as a student my motivation to practice has changed throughout this timeline. This essay contains my experience on the changing motivation as a student and a teacher.
One: The initial Motivation of practice as a student
It was purely on the idea of wanting to become a teacher. To become a teacher I told myself that I have to be good in every yoga pose. The motivation of wanting to become a teacher kept pushing me to practice 4 times a week. I believe that consistency is the key to improvement. With very little awareness of my anatomical structure, I was executing poses based on how the teacher taught me to do or by what my body can do at that time. In some poses it worked, in some it collapsed, and in some I did find new injuries. I recall a torn ligament or hamstring. Even still, it didn’t stop me from practicing.
Two: The Motivation of practice as a Teacher
After becoming a Teacher. The main motivation of my practice was to help my student experience the benefits of the poses. Mostly, the benefit of releasing tension around the muscle and the lengthening of it. I was born with overly rounded shoulders that are always caved in. Although I felt it had improved through some back bending practice in yoga, it was not enough to feel complete freedom in my body as the curve would come back. I strongly believed that my shoulders will never change because the bone is formed in that certain way and there was nothing I could do about it then to accept it. My search of wanting to find freedom in my own body after not cracking the code in certain muscle flexibility or improving in certain backbend poses has motivated me to find something more in the practice. The search has led me to Teacher Sita, A traditional teacher of Ashtanga Yoga. I started my Ashtanga Journey in 2025. Within 8 months of practice I noticed my shoulders and collarbones had broadened tremendously. The girl who would feel like suffocating and restricted in backbends is now doing it without struggling. Hence, the path of being a teacher had motivated me to practice in a way that I could impart the knowledge of freedom in the body to my students.
In sum ...
My motivation to practice comes from a constant battle with my own body. Desperately wanting to find freedom in it, had led me to many paths. The path as a student taught me to become a teacher. To make a great career for myself. Most importantly to find joy in what I do. Eventually I did fulfill it. The path as a teacher taught me to teach well, help others to understand and manage their body. I believe this learning journey is endless and I am able to acquire it through the advanced teacher training course. I have always been a detailed person carefully planning everything with perfection. I realised that this character can be applied to good use in life to help others through the yoga practice.