How You Can Live a Better Life with Yoga with Dr. Christa Kuberry
Yoga has been around for thousands of years. Most of us probably started practicing it by exercising in mind. But as we go on, we realize that it goes beyond the physical aspect. It helps us discover what's truly in our hearts, it clears our mind of any distractions, and it allows us to become free and vulnerable.
In this episode, Yoga Alliance's Dr. Christa Kuberry joins us to talk about how she got into yoga, what American yoga is, and how yoga has evolved through the years. She also shares how yoga has helped her manage her emotions and how you can do it too.
Check out the highlights of the episode below. Make sure that you tune in to the show to know all the details!
About Our Guest
Dr. Christa Kuberry is the Vice President of Standards at Yoga Alliance. She leads the company's efforts in evaluating and evolving yoga teacher training standards. She is a yoga teacher, practitioner, and scholar. She also serves on the steering committee for the Yoga Theory and Practice Group.
Living a Better Life with Yoga
Yoga as a Career Path
- Dr. Christa started her first yoga class in 1999, and she became a practitioner in 2002.
- She started yoga from an exercise perspective.
- When she was getting her masters in religious studies, she became interested in yoga and began bringing her academic knowledge into the studio.
- She then became a yoga teacher trainer.
Findings in American Yoga
- Dr. Christa wrote her dissertation on American yoga. She says yoga in the United States is very individualized.
- She argued in one of her papers that yoga in America is similar to a mash-up song, with different pieces thrown together in one underlying beat.
- Yoga is not going to stop growing because it has so much viability and is useful in different settings.
- People get into yoga from different perspectives, but they all seek a deeper understanding and a more holistic picture of yoga.
Yoga Is About Connection
- Yoga is a lifelong journey of education, and there are different ways to begin that path.
- Dr. Christa believes in the Hindu aphorism, “Tat Tvam Asi,” which translates to “You are that.” We are already what we seek to become.
- Individual practice leads to collective betterment.
- She's writing a book about the complex history of yoga and its concepts from an academic lens.
Practicing Ritual and Gratitude
- Ritual is an essential piece of her life because she has to have a structure in her busy life.
- The first thing Dr. Christa does every morning is to meditate and practice some Asana.
- Before she goes to bed, she reminds herself of two or three things she’s grateful for, no matter how mundane they are. It helps her go through the next day with less overwhelm and more gratitude and compassion.
The Gift of Vulnerability
- Everyone is a beginner at one point in their life.
- The process is just as significant as the end result.
- Yoga is a heart-based practice that makes you vulnerable and courageous at the same time.
Freedom and Yoga
- Dr. Christa believes freedom comes from presence.
- Yoga helps her be present in everyday moments.
- It also helps her feel free from everyday moments once she steps on the sacred rectangle of her yoga mat.
Dealing with Emotional Chaos
- Yoga has taught her that she has to acknowledge her feelings and work around them to get past them.
- We can't help what happens to us, but through yoga, we can learn how to react better to what happens to us.
5 Powerful Quotes from This Episode
- “We have a lot of brand new yogis, and there [are] a lot more people looking for depth. We start in this space of going to yoga because we want to have toned arms or we want some stress relief. And then something seems to happen. It's called Yoga Pratyaksha—this whole moment of superordinary consciousness where you're like, ‘Whoa, something happened in that class, and I want more of that.’”
- “The thing that really speaks to me, especially from the Rigveda, is an aphorism ‘Tat Tvam Asi,’ which essentially means ‘Thou art that’ or ‘That thou art.’ For me, I really look into that as, ‘I might be a drop in the ocean, but I am also the ocean.’ So I have to live in both of those spaces.”
- “The gift of vulnerability leads to the gift of yoga, as far as stepping into those spaces and being courageous enough to do so.”
- “Know that yoga is itself a heart-based practice and that you can be courageous enough. Wear your heart on your sleeve. Walk into that space. Know that every single person in that room, at some point on their path, probably also felt just as uncomfortable as you. People don't like to think about this either, but some part of yoga is also about being uncomfortable. It's about what that feels like to not always have everything figured out or sitting in it a little bit.”
- “Being part of what we speak to when we speak about yoga is just as important as having a perfect or working towards some sort of idea of perfection and alignment.”
Resources
Visit Yoga Alliance to know more about how they serve the community. You can connect with Dr. Christa via email or Instagram.
If you want to learn more about this topic, subscribe on iTunes, and don't hesitate to leave a review or any comments. Follow us on Instagram or Twitter, and let's start a discussion. If you like this episode, please share it with your friends. Thanks for listening!
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