Why Practice Yoga With Pets?

By Sangeetha Saran, CYT 500

Are there any benefits for humans and their pets practicing yoga together? Is pet yoga just a fly-by-night fad for people in search of the latest thing? Are yoga and meditation good for pets and humans together?

Combine Your Daily Yoga Practice with Pet Exercise

If you have a pet, then it is easy to combine your asana practice with animal exercise at home or in a specialized class that includes cats or dogs. After you return home from work, you may want to use yoga movements to relax, but if your dog needs a walk, then there is not much time left for a routine. Fortunately, there are experts who have designed yogic methods that are good for pets and people.

Create a Pet-friendly Yoga Routine to Use At Home

When your dog or cat has been home alone all day, it may also feel stressed due to the lack of physical activity. You might arrive home to find that your dog has been barking all day, or perhaps, your cat has sat by the window looking out until you return. Some animals display hostility after being alone for many hours, but you can bond with a cat or dog with a specialized yoga routine.

Incorporate Your Pets Into Your Yogic Practices

You might think that performing yoga sequences with a pet is not possible because animals cannot get into most of the positions, but the secret is that you can incorporate a cat or animal into a yoga routine. For instance, if you are sitting in a lotus pose, then you can place a small dog or cat in your lap, and while you are meditating, your pet will also become calmer and more relaxed.

Yogic Methodology Can Help an Animal Relax

If you have had a pet for several years, then it will notice when you are angry. Some dogs or cats will cuddle up to you when you are having a difficult day, but other pets will begin to act out by becoming more anxious or destructive. With the right types of yoga postures, a pet that avoids being held may relax and permit more hugs and pats. Sometimes, asana practice or meditation attracts your pet to calmly sit beside you and tune in.

Join a Class That Includes Yogic Methodology With Pets

As a pet owner, you might avoid participating in yoga classes because it requires leaving your cat or dog home alone again, but you can find a teacher who teaches classes that include pets. In many cases, these classes take place at local parks, making it easy to enjoy learning new asana postures and movements while also providing essential exercise for a pet. 

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To Assist or Not to Assist

By Sangeetha Saran

There are various categories of students. Similarly, there are various kinds of teachers - Teachers who are over-enthusiastic and teachers who hardly pay attention. Neither is an attribute you’d want in your teacher. A teacher needs to make the right decision, which differs, for every student. No single method works on all students, teachers have to get a little creative and find a way to work out with the student in a way the student feels comfortable.

The primary and most basic function of a teacher is to teach. The assistance that a teacher provides is subject to the situation faced by the teacher and at times by the student. Assisting students is not a compulsion for any teacher, it is the teacher’s own passion that makes her assist every student that requires it. 

Assistance, therefore, is a positive attribute in a teacher. But there are two sides to every coin. Overly assisting a student may sometimes lead to a lack of confidence. Students may become way too dependent on the teacher for daily yoga practice. The component of “going with the flow” of own body will be absent. Without this yoga loses its effect on the practitioner’s body.

Overly Enthusiastic Teachers 

There are teachers who try to assist the students, in good faith of course, since they are very passionate about their profession and they try to teach the student every little step. This works fine unless it becomes a regular practice. If the teacher persists with this method, the student loses the touch of self-learning and becomes more dependent on the teacher than advisable. 

Students will need assistance more and more frequently as time passes because yoga is a process of slowly making your body carve its path into positions it wasn’t initially able to get into. The only way to do this is by carving your own path, and with minimum outside help. Sure, teachers are always there to help a student when needed, but getting comfortable with the body yourself is a task only the students can handle. It’s like; a mother can feed a child with her hands, but chewing the food has to be learned by the child on his own. Hence, avoid assisting the students beyond certain limits.

Ignorant Teachers

There are teachers who strongly believe that students can't learn yoga if they start teaching every little thing. That any assistance will hold students back from fully benefiting from yoga. These teachers are not lazy; they do this because they feel it is best for the students. But these teachers are sometimes oblivious to the ignorance they display. Students need to start slow and only then fly. Demonstration of asanas is not enough. One look is not enough for students to get the best out of their bodies. 

As repeatedly mentioned many times, yoga is a process and a slow one at that. Here is another example. When a child first starts riding a bicycle, the parent holds it from behind and then sets the childfree. If the parent does not hold the bicycle in the beginning the child might fall. This seems like an effective way of learning to some teachers, but it has some drawbacks. The child will start balancing properly only when there’s enough confidence. Hence, start assisting students when they actually need it because they will hardly ever realize this. Teachers are the experienced ones, not the students.

Teachers always take action in good faith, of course. But to find out what’s best for the students is necessary. Everybody has a different way of teaching yoga, no doubt about that. But there are things, which are common for all teachers. After all, even teachers have to learn, perpetually! Make the call, to assist or not to assist.

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division