Beyond Right and Wrong
Three women practicing tree pose on a dock with a city and mountains behind them.
"I just want to make sure I'm doing this right."
When people begin practicing yoga, they're often worried about doing the poses right. I understand where that comes from. Beyond concerns about how others see us, there's good reason to want to practice safely and effectively.
Early on, I was working with one of my students and asked her to position her feet in the standard way for mountain pose — feet parallel — only to find out that standing that way was painful for her. She continued to practice with her own stance instead. Along the way, she learned that one leg was significantly shorter than the other, and got shoes that helped bring her back into balance. When she practiced yoga, she wore those shoes.
"The map is not the terrain"
A standard of any kind, including a yoga pose, is a map. But our bodies aren't standard — even within a "normal" range, they vary more than any map can account for.
When I began my teacher training, we spent a lot of time learning standards and safety: exactly how to position the feet and knees in mountain, chair, and the warrior poses; the precise way to move through chaturanga dandasana, up dog, and back to down dog. It felt good to know how to do the poses and feel confident in what I was doing. But the truth is that a lot of the standard yoga we were taught assumed a certain kind of body practicing it — able-bodied, uninjured, within a fairly narrow range of proportion, strength and flexibility.
The other truth I discovered later is that there are many, many different standards. Often, those standards are based on teacher lineage. My lineage is fitness-based yoga which was strongly influenced by the teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar, who focused on holistic health.
My teacher training was excellent, and it gave me a strong foundation. But over the years, my students — each unique — have taught me just as much. When I see the natural variation from person to person in warrior two or side angle, it seems right to me. Over time, I watch people getting stronger or more open, able to go deeper into a pose. If they keep showing up, I know their practice will keep growing. More than anything, I'm encouraged when students tell me how yoga is changing their lives — and that happens even when they're not doing the "standard" pose.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Rumi
So where does this lead us? Standards are helpful, just like maps are useful. But they're not everything. I think one of the best things we can do as yoga practitioners is return to yoga's origins: yoga is union with the true self, and it goes beyond the physical practice to encompass heart and mind as well. In the early days, students followed a more individualized path, shaped by their own abilities and their own development. That’s the direction I would like to take.
What does that look like in practice? Many of you are already doing it — choosing a version of pigeon that works for your body, sitting in a chair if that's what you need, using a strap. It's knowing which evening class will actually help you unwind from your day. It can also mean revisiting a "standard" way of doing a pose and asking what you might learn by trying it — or by pushing past it. It's asking, "What is my intention for practicing yoga?" Or even, "What is my intention for life?"
My hope is that Hillside Yoga can be a community where each student is becoming more of their true self — able to let go of self-judgment, enjoy their practice, and tap into the wisdom yoga has to offer.
Joanne
* If you're curious what individualizing your own practice could look like, that's exactly what our new monthly lunch and learn, Beyond Right and Wrong, is for. Starting September 2026, we'll gather once a month to talk through what it means to make yoga your own. Check out our Events page for details. Programs and Events