I’ve recently let go of the use of ambient music in my Yoga classes. After 10 years (or 20 if you count my fitness-teaching days) of searching for the perfect music, at the right tempo and volume, with deliberations over lyrics vs. non, I’ve decided to make room for more moments of silence and (almost) everyone has enjoyed the change.
What has bubbled up are more periods of pure silence sandwiched between the vibrant sounds of cars, birds, stomachs growling, floor joists creaking and joints popping. A cachaphony of day-to-day sounds interspersed with clear silence amongst a room of embodied Spirits. In an urban environment, we are bombarded by noise acting as yet another form of over-stimulation and for this reason many of us have become uncomfortable with silence. And yet, silence provides such a dynamic capsule for experiencing life.
During Yoga class, silence
- allows the practitioner to acknowledge and work with underlying repetitive thought patterns
- provides more opportunities to hear the authentic wisdom available within the body
- connects us with our own deep inner stillness
- gives a different perspective to and awareness of environmental sounds
Nov 04, 2011 @ 11:47:56
I wondered about that this morning when there was no music. Thanks for clarifying.
Nov 07, 2011 @ 08:54:35
Jan 22, 2012 @ 05:57:41
I have found that the soft rhythm of the sitar and a tabla background is extremely compatible to the inner workings of the frequency of my own melodies that come from within. The sitar instrument in itself is very similar to the practice of meditation in that all the notes played in the scale all surround one constant focus on one string …as so the mind and its constant restlessness is always singing its song.. , focus on the rhythm of the breath ,just as that dominant string on the sitar brings us closer to the spirit within the self , and I use it (music) when practicing asanas,, but for meditation, sweet silence.