Part 1 of an occasional series
I no longer say, "the fullest expression of the pose."
In my teacher training over 15 years ago, this was common lingo (AKA the most "advanced" version of the pose). Oh wait, advanced is another word I have removed from my yoga teacher vocabulary for the most part.
Back to "fullest expression": This phrase connotes a hierarchy of postures. Like there is the one "right" way to do the pose, and everything else doesn't count for some reason, or is of lesser importance.
What is my full expression of a pose? One that feels right in my body on any given day, time of day, and moment. It's a pose that I can breathe comfortably in. It's a pose that is not going to cause even greater imbalance in my body based on my unique biology and biography (hello, ski injury in my teens).
The ancient yoga text, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (2.46), defies it as: shhira sukham asanam—the posture should be steady and comfortable.
This is the filter I like to use when exploring asanas—not whether my body makes an Instagram-worthy contortionist shape, but how it lands in my body and mind—is it steady and comfortable? Is it leading to greater steadiness in body, mind, and being?
Instead of the fullest expression of the pose, what if it was just my version of the shape on any given day, knowing that yoga can look and be effective in many different ways.