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It’s an extended debated topic: Should we be practicing yoga in front of a mirror or does self-reflection, the outward kind, diminish our ability to show inward?

“I even have a fluctuating relationship with the mirror,” says Rachel Lawless, a yoga teacher in Ottawa, Canada. “Some days I appreciate the power to ascertain my alignment or see the distinctiveness of my body in a pose reflected back at me. And a few days it compounds the battle of silencing the ego.”

An obvious tool for reflection, mirrors are considered a go-to alignment tool for the physical practice of yoga by many teachers and students. Although if the intention of the practice is to transcend the constraints of the body and the mind and encourage awareness of the self, are mirrors more of a distraction than a profit?

So how can we discern whether mirrors are an asset to our individual and collective yoga practice or a detriment? The reply just isn’t necessarily as clear as our reflections.

What Are the Downsides of Mirrors in Yoga?

In a society that tends to see greater than it feels, we may not need one other realm that may encourage obsessing about what we appear to be as a substitute of what’s occurring inside.

Mirrors Can Overemphasize the Outward Expression of a Pose

Each pose asks us to create a shape with our bodies. Yet yoga also asks students to feel into their experience and recognize the subtler sensations which might be happening. Removing the distraction of outward reflection will help students, especially those newer to the practice, tune into the less obvious facets of their experience and develop self-awareness around their breath, energy, emotions, and other less tangible sensations.

That features becoming comfortable with the subtle body, or the unseen energetic aspect of 1’s being. All of that is an act of svadhyaya, which is often translated as “self-study” and is an important tenet of yoga.

Mirrors Can Encourage Unhealthy Comparison

Reminders from teachers not to match your practice to anyone else’s are common. But removing mirrors from a practice space helps limit the comparison game that’s rampant in most of up to date society, including yoga studios.

A study by the University of Minnesota surveyed female college-aged students before and after practicing yoga in rooms with and without mirrors. Researchers found that the presence of mirrors increased the likelihood of scholars comparing their bodies to others. Mirrors also significantly heightened the scholars’ anxiety around being observed or judged by their physical appearance.

In fact, in any group yoga class, the bodies in your visual field can invite comparison. But not introducing a mirror to the practice space may help students keep their focus more on the non-public and internal.

Mirrors Can Distract

Many students who’ve developed a house practice don’t miss mirrors in any respect. Longtime yoga student Deb Malave says that she switched to practicing online as a substitute of in a studio since Covid. “I’ve come to comprehend my practice is more of a sense than a glance,” she says. “I listen for audio cues from the teacher on find out how to higher a pose and I turn inward to feel the sensations greater than turn outward to look. Doing yoga without mirrors has helped to deepen my practice versus the visual of taking a look at myself, taking a look at others, and losing my footing in Tree!”

Practicing with out a mirror can even help us escape insecurities and self-judgment that may occur if our reflection doesn’t match how we perceive ourselves.

Mirrors Can Hide Our True Reflection

Who must see a mirrored image of their body when the practice of yoga itself is already a mirror to the self?

Brett Larkin, founding father of Uplifted Yoga, likes to remind students that the practice of yoga on the mat is a microcosm of your life off the mat. The poses teach students once they must decelerate and force them to practice in response to their physical, mental, and emotional needs within the moment. Isn’t that probably the most realistic mirror one could ask for? A mirror that accurately reflects not only physical reality but life in its entirety?

How Can Mirrors Be Useful in Yoga?

We are sometimes encouraged to maintain our attention on our own mat, prioritize our own practice, and focus our attention on our own experience. For some students, mirrors can facilitate this.

Mirrors Allow Us to Explore Alignment

The plain argument for counting on mirrors during yoga is the power to look at one’s alignment within the physical postures and develop proprioception.

Proprioception, or body awareness, develops over time. By having the ability to see what your pose looks like within the mirror, it may well be easier to make small adjustments to your form based on verbal cues from the teacher. That visual understanding of the pose can inform the sensation the pose creates within the body.

For instance, a teacher may instruct a student to lower their shoulders away from their ears to avoid creating tension within the upper back. While a student may not immediately grasp what lowering the shoulders looks like, seeing themselves lower their shoulders in a mirror, after which feeling the feeling of doing so, may create a quicker connection.

The training doesn’t end there. “Deepened body awareness gives more tangible experiences with the postures, which might result in more subtle awareness over time,” says Tamika Caston-Miller, who curates yoga experiences and trainings in service of collective healing and community repair. With practice, embodiment of the poses results in embodiment of other integral yet non-physical components of the practice, explains Caston-Miller.

Mirrors Can Help Us Turn out to be More Self-Aware

“The final word aim of yoga is to tune inward,” says Larkin. But in case you’re refining your posture, she says, the mirror may be a useful tool to find protected alignment.

She gives the instance of scholars having the ability to notice if their right side is more flexible from their left, or if their head is consistent with the remainder of their spine, or if their hips are square.“Taking the time to actually watch and study yourself in a mirror may be higher than a non-public lesson,” she says.

Larkin asks her yoga teacher training students to buy a full-length mirror and to photograph themselves in yoga’s key postures. “Throughout this process,” says Larkin, “you learn a lot about yourself—your posture, your habits, and tendencies.” These awarenesses are difficult to derive from sensation alone. And finding protected alignment to your body lets you experience the intended effects of the posture

Mirrors Can Help Some Students Turn out to be More Comfortable With Their Bodies

The practice of yoga is an ongoing opportunity to reconnect with the physical self. Many students marvel at how their body twists and turns, folds and arches. Although our yoga practice just isn’t about appearances and even shapes, it’s a place where we turn out to be more self aware.

The repeated experience of observing their reflection can bring acceptance for some students. For higher or for worse, the presence of mirrors in a yoga setting can feel somewhat like exposure therapy, an intense intervention sometimes utilized in cognitive behavioral therapy that confronts a person with something that instills anxiety and fear. Whether intentional or not, exposure to uncomfortable situations can occur during on a regular basis experiences, including yoga.

Nevertheless, the easy exposure to 1’s reflection in a yoga class shouldn’t be confused with a therapeutic and supported approach to body image issues. Research suggests mirror exposure therapy is useful for some although not for others.

Mirrors Can Assist Teachers As Well As Students

Yoga teachers often verbally cue alignment in a pose but they may not display it. A mirror will help students experience the form of a pose by allowing them to attract information from their very own reflection and that of others. Observing others can even afford students a probability to learn find out how to modify a pose in a way that may also work for them.

The reflection of mirrors could be a profit for teachers in addition to students. “I occur to be dyslexic, and teaching with out a mirror and mirroring a category [“mirroring” refers to facing the students and moving the opposite side of the body so it appears as if students’ movements are mirrored] was and is a large challenge,” says teacher Chrissy Hammer of Lake Arrowhead, California. “With some commitment, I even have been in a position to do it. Nevertheless, I find my students prefer me to be facing the identical direction as them with a mirrored room.” Each she and students profit from her reflection.

So, To Mirror or To not Mirror?

There isn’t any right or fallacious answer to the query. Every person could have a singular relationship with their practice, their physical reflection, and their emotional response to a mirror.

At Pure Yoga Ottawa, among the yoga studios have mirrors while others don’t. Co-owner Amber Stratton explains this was a design decision that has inadvertently allowed students to pick out what works higher for them. “The great point is,” says Stratton, “the deeper you get into your yoga practice and work on yourself, the less time you’ll give attention to the physical and the less distracted you’ll turn out to be, whether there’s a mirror there or not.”

Yoga teacher and trainer Kristi Kuttner appreciates her early years of yoga and the mirrors in those studios. “My practice created an area to be much kinder and compassionate toward my reflection,” she says, referring to yoga as a “gateway to self-love.” Years later, her practice now not includes mirrors. “I find they distract me from seeing my truest reflection—my spirit.”

3 Suggestions for Practicing Yoga Mindfully Near Mirrors

The one strategy to know whether using a mirror feels right to you is to stay aware as you practice with one and without one. Grace Secker, a psychotherapist and yoga therapist who has experience working with eating disorders and body image issues, advocates for college kids to practice in whatever setting feels best for them although she feels mirrors are nonessential to the practice. She offers a couple of suggestions for college kids preferring to practice without their reflection but may find themselves practicing in an area with mirrors:

1. Keep Your Distance

Attempt to distance yourself from the mirror to attenuate the distraction. That sometimes means placing your mat closer to the center or back of the room. You would possibly must arrive at class a bit of early to secure one among these spaces.

2. Practice Your Yoga

If you happen to glance on the mirror and self-critical thoughts arise, draw on the tools that yoga provides you: close your eyes, slow your breath, and produce your awareness back to what the teacher is saying and the way the pose is feeling in your body. Repeat as needed during class.

3. Find As Much Ease As You Can In Your Reflection

Although yoga just isn’t about appearances and clothing just isn’t an answer to body image issues, consider wearing something that’s each easy to maneuver in and that is pleasant to you. If you happen to do glance within the mirror, this will allow you to from becoming overly critical of yourself.

About Our Contributor
Taylor Lorenz is a travel and yoga author, yoga teacher, and self-acceptance advocate from Ottawa, Canada. Her writing and yoga classes teach that travel is a type of expansion as a substitute of escapism and  that self-acceptance is the cure to a lot of life’s woes. She goals to assist others feel comfortable and assured of their bodies and their dreams in order that they can live their lives freely. Follow her on Instagram and YouTube.