Weekly Journal Entry #2

                 When it comes to my practice space for practicing yoga I feel that I am in a unique position compared to most other yoga practitioners. I do not consider the space in which I practice yoga to be a "sacred space". I think that this mindset comes from my instructors in the various martial arts, we see the mat as a place to learn, improve, sweat, and bleed. When it comes to showing respect, we show respect more to our training partners as opposed to our practice space. Furthermore, my yoga practice often has a focus purely on the physical aspects of yoga, with very little meditation and a lot of positional holds such as warrior and tree. Our goal with taking a very physical approach to yoga is to improve our balance, stability, and sense of calm when training other martial arts such as jiu jitsu or muay thai. The people that I train around are not yogis first, but martial artists.
                 In terms of decoration, our space for yoga practice is very bare with white, matted walls on all sides. Along one side of the room is where we keep most of our equipment and pads for various striking arts as well as heavy bags on the other side of the room. In comparison to other yoga practice spaces, I feel like we are on par when it comes to creating a calm, distraction-free environment for training. Our rules revolve primarily around obedience to our instructors and respect to our training partners. When practicing vinyasa, the mindset is comparable to that of a martial artist. Everyone in the room is looking to improve their physical prowess in terms of core strength, balance, stability, and flexibility.
                The way in which my normal practice space differs from a purely yoga-centric environment is in the noises. At times while we practice yoga you can hear the sounds of heavy bags and pads being hit or people rolling around on the mats from the other room. This environment does not bother us since we practice Vinyasa from a purely physical standpoint. We do not do much in the way of spiritual meditation as we are using yoga as a component of our martial arts training in order to enhance our skills in the other martial arts. I think that is approach to yoga is becoming increasingly popular as more people, especially men, are seeing the benefits that yoga can provide in terms of free movement and flexibility.