PROPS! When I first started doing yoga, props were my friends. They made poses that didn’t initially come naturally to my body so much more accessible. Like having blocks in standing split, a block with half moon, a strap with dancer pose, a strap with forward bends, etc.
However, as I started going to yoga classes more, I could feel a subtle *competitive* factor among my fellow practitioners. Props, all of a sudden, weren’t something to be proud of using. Rather, they showed your “weakness” and your “beginner level.” So, to fit in, to inflate my ego, I’d try and throw myself into physically intense poses without props. I’d come home so sore, and in pain, thinking that that was natural. “This is how you get a ‘yoga body.’”
First of all, before I continue, I need to address that I’m not one who should be at the forefront of #bodypositivity or #fatpositivity in yoga. My petite body has “beauty currency,” meaning that while I don’t have ripped abs or 3% body fat, my thinness and petiteness blends in with the dominant beauty standard. Therefore, I defer this expertise and this work to womxn like Dianne Bondy, Amber Karnes, and other folks within the Yoga and Body Image Coalition.
I find the practice of yoga to be so healing. I see how far I’ve come and how much my practice has evolved and blossomed. I, like many, feel so much pride in achieving a pose, or a step towards a pose. Right now, I’m getting a little bit closer to VISVAMITRASANA and STILL working on a bind in my half pigeon using straps.
I also love doing a restorative practice. As someone who has a lot of anxiety, I feel body inflammation a lot. I feel it in my muscles and in my belly. The restorative practice, with blankets, blocks, sandbags, and bolsters helps me to recharge and relax. Props are essential to calling folks with ALL BODY TYPES and SKILL LEVELS IN to healing yoga spaces. Now, if my body…that is fairly thin and fairly in shape feels alienated for using props…then from whom are we depriving access to this transformative mind-body practice? If our goal is to heal and enlighten, then why take away tools that make that accessible for folks with different bodies? Different abilities? Different mobility? Different IDENTITIES? Different experiences? Possible traumas?
This is my Thursday Food for Thought. If you’re a teacher, make sure to keep your eyes peeled. Know when to offer a block, or when to have a strap ready for folks who are SO CLOSE to that bind, or when a blanket might feel good in Yoga Nidra. And if you use props, P R O P S to you for using them!