Kayla McCormack (@kaylamccormackyoga) is a yoga instructor and astronomy student. When she isn’t teaching a yoga class, she’s reading a book, watching sci-fi or travelling around the planet Earth.
1. Everyone seems to be practicing yoga nowadays — but where did it come from?
Ah, the history of yoga is a little bit complicated, mostly because it’s so old. The general excepted age of yoga as a life philosophy is over 5000 years and is closely linked with Indian culture and religions as it came from the ancient texts called the Vedas, but I would say (especially today) yoga itself is not a religion. Some people really struggle with that!
The word yoga stems from the Sanskrit word yug, meaning “to yoke or bring together”. About 2000 years ago the Indian sage Patanjali collated what was then a verbal tradition into 195 statements in the form of a book called Yoga Sutraand it is this guidebook that most yoga teachers today train from. The Yoga Sutreincludes the 8 Limbs of Yogaand are the key principles for most yoga traditions you see now.
"yoga was originally intended for young Indian males"
The first physical practice of yoga was Hatha Yoga (older than patanjali’s yoga sutras in which he terms the physical practice Asana). The term Hatha breaks into hameaning sun and thameaning moon and was intended to be a forceful practice to help bring union in the mind and body. It prepared the body for stillness or meditation, creating the necessary physical strength, flexibility and stamina that allowed the body to sit for long periods of time and at the same time allow the mind to remain calm. It’s hard to focus on meditating if your foot is asleep.
But in saying all that, the physical practice you do when you go to a yoga class has gracefully been adapted and changed over the last 5000 years to suit our modern days and more body types (yoga was originally intended for young Indian males who, I might add, were used to sitting on the floor a lot).
3. How long have you been practicing yoga and why did you start practicing yoga?
I’d love to give you some dramatic story of love and loss or pain and hardship but to be honest I started practicing about 10 years ago because I saw a sign in a pub that said they had a yoga class every Monday evening for £5. I practiced for 6 years with that teacher at that pub or in her home. She covered so much more than the physical practice and so much more than what a usual group class could ever cover. I was hooked.
4. What is yoga to you?
I came to yoga through meditation, so to me yoga is all about the mind-body connection which, for me, has two parts:
1) I have very strong emotions, lucky for me I’m not a crier but I do love deeply and feel anger strongly. I use my yoga to help with this. Every emotion you feel has a physical reaction in the body, if you become more sensitive to them, they can act as little red flags warning you before you blow your top. I had a teacher that said “you can get to the mind through the body or you can get to the mind through the mind.”
2) I love the science behind yoga and even though my science degree is not in a medical field I still find it fascinating and regularly read articles and books to expand my knowledge in that way. The first time I took a class that was focused on the glutes, I realised that the signals from my brain down to my butt just weren’t firing, try it yourself, tighten one cheek then the other, going back and forth. Is it easy for you or do you have to really think about it? This connection, this real physical connection between the mind and the body, is not spiritual, its electrical. Use it or loose it, as they say.
5. How did you feel after your first yoga class and how do you want students to feel after they practice with you?
My first yoga classes left me feeling extremely relaxed but also aware of how stiff I was (I couldn’t sit crossed legged on the floor). I want every single person who comes to my classes to float away with a calm mind and maybe a few hours after class they realise, they have a little bit more knowledge about their body and more awareness of what their body is doing when they would’ve usually been on auto-pilot.I had a student that after a few classes told me he was sitting straighter at his desk, was more aware of his posture and that it was more comfortable for him to sit in a healthier way. That’s what I want my students to leave with. That and a relaxed mind.
"I have a sense of fulfilment when I teach like nothing I’ve felt before."
6. What impact has yoga had on your life? Who were you before you started practicing and how have you changed because of your practice?
I am now only a yoga teacher, I have no other work, so my life has definitely changed!Before I started practicing my I was working in an office, plodding on to save money with the intention of moving back to America (where I was born). Yoga helped me understand that it is ok for our dreams to change. I have new dreams now and that’s ok. Like I said I have strong emotions including stress. Yoga has helped me deal with mental stress by giving me the skill to keep a calm mind during physical stress, so that when mental stress shows itself through a physical effect on my body, I can do a u-turn and calm the mind through the body. Like when you take 10 deep breaths if you’re angry.
Personally, I have a sense of fulfilment when I teach like nothing I’ve felt before. Before a class, I might get nervous or feel a bit ill (I have a very sensitive stomach) but as soon as I step up in front of everyone, all I can think of is sharing my knowledge to help people help themselves. My personal embracement or illness disappears and all I think of is helping. This kind of confidence in front of people has been refreshing and I honestly feel more at ease and confident now in other situations in my life.
7. What style of yoga do you practice and why do you love it?
Yoga can be whatever you want it to be. It can strengthen you, relax you, focus the mind, be a meditation, be a good stretch. It can be anything your body or mind needs in that moment. But if you want modern terms; I practice Restorative, Hatha and Vinyasa styles of yoga.
8. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out on their yoga journey?
Keep trying! My first teacher had long relaxations (compared to what I know now is the norm) and always included lots of pranayama (breath practices) and meditation/cleansing practices (such as candle gazing till your eyes water a little). If my first class had been a ‘typical’ vinyasa I don’t think I would have gone back, as at the time, that wasn’t what I was looking for. So, I would tell people just starting out to try different teachers and different styles with the same teacher. Just keep trying! If you don’t find it is perfect for you, keep trying, the perfect class is out there! For example, you’ll never get my husband in a yoga class but he LOVES a one to one restorative class with me.
9. What has been your biggest milestone in your practice?
People talk about accepting their bodies, that’s not something I’ve really had a problem with in general but I think yoga has made me realise that it’s ok if I never do something ‘advanced’. Just because I’m a yoga teacher does not mean I have to be able to do a handstand without a wall or splits.
What impact do you think social media has had on yoga?
Social media can connect people, can give you awareness into where to go and what classes are available in your area, as a teacher it’s a good way to get the information out there and be personal. But I’ll give you this warning: There is a lot of information out there that is downright dangerous. And I HATE (a term I don’t use lightly) those pictures of “If your goal is this: Practice this:” Most of the time they are wrong and half the time not safe. Social media also seems to give the impression that yoga is aimed at young people, which is a load of crap. My mother in law did her yoga teacher training with me at the age of 55. And you might get unrealistic expectations of what you ‘should’ be able to do after a week/month/year of practice. Everybody’s body is different and is capable of different things. The true purpose of yoga is to connect the mind and body not to do a split, if you want to do a split, be a gymnast.
10. What is your favourite pose and why?
That’s a really hard question! I would probably say downward dog. It’s in pretty much every class and uses both the upper and lower body meaning we feel it strengthen and stretch our hands, arms, shoulders, back, calves, hamstrings and even our feet. It’s a great one for body awareness and adapting; you can use bricks under the heals with bent knees to get the spine straight, tilting the hips can increase or decrease the stretch in the back of the legs etc. It shows us how to strengthen and use all the muscles down the front of the arms so that we don’t hurt the wrists. And it’s an inversion, so some blood from the waist and upper body starts to shift towards the floor and head, this can have the effect of lowing the heart rate (amongst other things) if the pose itself is not too strenuous to hold.
11. What are the 8 Limbs of yoga?
There are whole books devoted to this topic! So, to keep it short I’m over simplifying to the max! And would encourage anyone to read online or ask your yoga teacher.The 8 Limbs of Yoga where made to help us live our happiest lives. They are a guide to a way of life. It was written two centuries after Jesus in Sanskrit and has a lot of translations and views into the meanings and how we can apply it today. The table I’ve made has more details. It goes something like this:
1. Yamas – moral discipline
2. Niyamas – self discipline
3. Asana – physical postures
4. Pranayama - breath
5. Pratyahara – withdrawal of the senses
6. Dharana – concentration
7. Dyana – meditation
8. Samadhi – enlightenment
If you have loved hearing about Kayla’s yoga practice — go and check out her
website to find out more about her and where you can take one of her classes!