music & yoga

I had a student last night who asked if I ever did yoga to music. She suggested that she could bring some dvds. I asked "why"? She says she likes background music. The silence really kind of bothers her. Interesting, right? As we move into stillness, does music enhance, detour stillness, or is it a coping or crutch to not be alone with our thoughts? I suggested that for the specific reason that the silence bothers her, she could try to start incorporating more stillness, or quiet into her life. Maybe start to investigate why she needed or desired "white noise". She did say that her thoughts never slowed down. I then assured her that we would be doing one class to music this session. Does anyone think that answer was a little out of place? or too deep? or too personal?

Roberta
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I liked your response and will probably "steal" it. Having said that, if I can generalize, I think most beginner students are looking to yoga for stretching and strengthening and the search for stillness comes in time. I think quiet background music is okay.

I think your response was great and right on the money. We are constantly bombarded by noises all day and that yoga time can be a great way of shutting off for awhile. I think music can be all those things and sometimes it can be a addition to the practice. Yoga dance parties can be fun too. Maybe she will come back to you at some point to tell you why the quiet bothers her so much.

Roberta,
I like your response. I too will likely steal it when I get teaching again. I have taught with music (at a student's request). I think they like it because they think they are exercising and when you exercise you usually listen to music. I don't like music that has english words because I find that I start thinking about the music. Instrumental or sanskrit chanting is nice

That's a great answer! I think we have a tendency to overcomplicate everything - so it's nice to have someone point things out or ask the right questions. As someone who has chosen to learn from you, she likely values hearing you're opinion (whether she agrees or not). Therefore, you couldn't really say anything 'wrong.' I lie. You probably could if you wanted to be nutty and fanatical, but I'm assuming that's not the case.

I love silence. I was way more of a "white noise" person before I started doing yoga. It's not that silence freaked me out, but I just wasn't ever present enough to appreciate it. After I started doing yoga I started paying more attention to why I do the things I do. It occurred to me how often I would turn on music, or the CBC, purely out of habit. Now, I rarely play music unless I'm cleaning/rocking out. To me, it's not that music is necessarily good or bad... it's just that when I'm more mindful of what I'm doing, I realize I don't care if I'm listening to music or not. Lots of the time it's just never occurs to me to turn it on.

So maybe for your student, it's a matter of bringing that awareness and learning to deal with it - even if it's just for an hour in class. It's been my experience that awareness spills over into the rest of your life whether you want it to or not.