 Over the many years of teaching, we have noticed four stages of learning that students go through when faced with new information. These stages are based solely on our observation and time spent in yoga rooms around the world. They are also based on how we have personally reacted when faced with a new approach.
In this blog series, we will outline what we have noticed both in our students and in our own experience learning new, and sometimes challenging, information. Here is the fourth blog in this series. We have reached the final stage of learning. We have shown up to a learning situation, taken in a new piece of knowledge, realized that the new knowledge conflicts with what we have believed. To cope, we have tried to fit the new knowledge into our mind without giving up our previously held beliefs. But we are stuck. We can't fit the old and new together. There is still conflict. They just don't go together. So now what? Stage four is: The Crack. Stage four is when we crack open and become ready (or not) to learn and grow. The Crack gives us three options for a path forward. Option one is rejection. We can decide that it's simply too much to learn something new and we're more comfortable with our previous belief, even if that belief is not true. We may just decide to double down on what we have thought and stay there. It's comfortable and safe. This is a valid choice because it's simple, but sadly, it often leaves us with mistaken beliefs that we think are knowledge. We might be comfortable, but we're probably wrong in what we think we know. Option two is anger. We can accept what we are learning, but become upset that we're learning something new. We may think things like, "Why didn't I know this before...??" or "I've spent a decade doing it wrong.... ugh!" or "Why did no one tell me this?....". This can be really frustrating and can often leave us in a state where we're just fed up with the whole process. We become be angry at where we have found ourselves. This makes sense, because learning isn't easy. It takes opening our minds which is challenging to the structures our mind has created. But we have another option once The Crack starts. Option three is enthusiasm. We can learn something new and become inspired once again! We can take this opportunity to realize how much there is to learn and how exciting that is! If we can learn one thing new and see the practice in a new light, imagine how many other things we can learn that will lead our practice to evolve even more? When we learn something new we should try to be enthusiastic, not just for the new knowledge, but for learning at large. The practice never ends. The learning never ends. For that we can be grateful and enthusiastic in our search for what else is out there.
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 Over the many years of teaching, we have noticed four stages of learning that students go through when faced with new information. These stages are based solely on our observation and time spent in yoga rooms around the world. They are also based on how we have personally reacted when faced with a new approach.
In this blog series, we will outline what we have noticed both in our students and in our own experience learning new, and sometimes challenging, information. Here is the third blog in this series. The third stage of learning is bargaining. We have successfully heard something new, and we have begun to see how it conflicts with a belief we have been holding. We have managed to parse the details and have located the very place where there is conflict in our minds between what we previously thought and what we are learning now. Now what? Now is the bargaining phase. This is where we think things like, "Maybe this is just a different approach..." or "Maybe both of these facts are true...." or "Maybe the teacher I learned from really meant this but just explained it differently....". This is where the questions become how to integrate what we are learning into what we already learned. This is a normal response, however this is not the best approach. Sometimes we learn something new that needs to replace what we learned previously. It is not a matter of integrating the two pieces of understanding together, it is a matter of replacing what we know with the better piece of knowledge. It is true that there are infinite beliefs. But belief is not the same as knowledge: knowledge requires truth and does not require belief. Here we need to figure out what is our belief and what is true knowledge. This is another challenging stage of learning because we once again push up against what we think we know and even, who we think we are. Humans tend to hold their beliefs so close that we mistake our beliefs for the self. In this stage of learning, we can often feel that our very identity is under conflict. This gives us three options.... Next time in stage four of learning: The Crack.  Over the many years of teaching, we have noticed four stages of learning that students go through when faced with new information. These stages are based solely on our observation and time spent in yoga rooms around the world. They are also based on how we have personally reacted when faced with a new approach.
In this blog series, we will outline what we have noticed both in our students and in our own experience learning new, and sometimes challenging, information. Here is the second blog in this series. The second stage of learning is what we call, "Wait, what?!" Now it's sinking in that what we heard does not match what we have learned previously. Something that is being taught is contradicting something that is already in our minds. This stage is when we start to break things down and piece them back together. How does what we heard conflict with what we think we know? Where are the roadblocks to understanding? Do I really understand what I am hearing? This stage is when we start to say (or at least think) things like, "But I've always understood it as...." or "I've always been taught that...." or "What I've heard is that...". This is an important stage of learning because it is when we really try to assimilate something new. This is the first actual stage of integrating new information. Stage one was simply the enthusiastic agreement stage. Now, in stage two, we really have to think. While this is where the true learning begins, it does not mean that this stage is easy. It is not easy to be faced with new information, nor is it easy to comb through our knowledge and find the flaws in our understanding. While that is exactly what learning entails, we can find ourselves resisting this process because it can be uncomfortable. What happens next? Next up is Stage Three: Bargaining.  Over the many years of teaching, we have noticed four stages of learning that students go through when faced with new information. These stages are based solely on our observation and time spent in yoga rooms around the world. They are also based on how we have personally reacted when faced with a new approach.
In this blog series, we will outline what we have noticed both in our students and in our own experience learning new, and sometimes challenging, information. Here is the first blog in this series. FOUR STAGES OF LEARNING: AGREEMENT The first stage of learning is agreement. When we first hear something new, we tend to automatically agree. We are enthusiastic about a learning experience in general, and are likely feeling good about being in the yoga room with our community and peers. We hear something and automatically think, "Yes! Great!" This stage of learning is swept up by infatuation with the whole experience. It is exciting to be in a learning environment. We likely walked into the room because we enjoy what we do and want to learn and better our practice. Humans like to be in agreement, we like things to be simple and safe. So in this stage of learning, we jump on board with whatever we hear, and we agree. However, in our passionate state, we have not yet realized that what we have heard may conflict with what we already think we know. We haven't actually processed what we've heard, we have just jumped on board without thinking it through. This means that the second we really think about what is being taught, we might find ourselves in a very difficult situation: accept something new or stick with what we know? That's in next blog on stage two of learning: "Wait, what?!"  Lunge Often, the Half Moon Series is practiced at the beginning of a class. This series usually includes side bends, a backbend and either a forward bend of the spine or a hamstring stretch. However, there is a posture that is quite useful to do before this series and that is Lunge. Lunge doesn't affect the side bends or forward bend directly, but Lunge does warm the body due to its use of big muscles. More importantly though, and the point here, is that Lunge has a big effect on the backbend. When we backbend, we typically are extending both the spine and the hips at the same time. This is challenging because it demands coordination between our spine, pelvis and hips, all in relation to gravity. A Standing Backbend requires we navigate a complicated relationship with gravity. Due to the technique required to execute this position, the result is usually the abdomen contracting and the spinal extensors relaxing: the opposite of what we want. For the hips, this requires the hip flexors to get very long and relaxed. This is quite difficult to accomplish while standing, even more difficult to accomplish early in class. In the Standing Backbend, it is also significant that we require both hips (and the abdomen) to lengthen at the same time. Due to the fact our hips are typically flexed throughout the day--any time we are sitting, our hips are flexed--our hip flexors are short and likely tight. Lunge is very useful to remedy this. Lunge extends the hip, one side of the body at a time. This is a gentler way to approach hip extension and backward bending. This is simpler to do with precision, and prepares the body for a Standing Backbend. Lunge also requires a forward (anterior) tilted pelvis. This causes the back muscles to contract to be upright in the position. Even if we are not doing a deep backbend in Lunge, the spinal extensors are still contracting to hold the spine upright. This is very useful for preparing to purposefully backbend the spine. In summary, Lunge is a useful posture to practice before Half Moon series. It will warm the body a bit, but more importantly, it will allow the spine, pelvis and hips to move with more ease and precision. In a posture as challenging as the Standing Backbend, we should take any help we can get.  Standing Backbend  It is common to hear the phrase "hands palms" in Bikram Yoga. Due to the nature of the "dialogue" and the fact that some teachers use rote memorization for their instructions, this phrase has been repeated countless times.
However, it is a strange phrase. In English, we do not need both the words "hands" and "palms", because palm is clear enough on its own when instructing a hand position. However, if we think in terms of translation, this phrase makes more sense. In Bangla, the language of Kolkata, there is no singular word for "palm". The phrase to convey this meaning is হাতের তালু, or "hat-er talu". The first word is "hat" which means hand. The second word is "talu" which means palate, crown, or flat. Together this creates the idea of the "hand's palate" or the flat part of the hand. In English this becomes "palm". If we are simply translating this phrase from Bangla, it makes sense to say "hand's palms". However, since English has the singular word "palm" which refers to the position of the hands, clarity doesn't require we also say "hand". Translation is a helpful tool to understand why unusual phrases make their way into the yoga world. "Hand's-palms" is one of them.  Traditions of yoga and meditation have long been interested in investigating the nature of the self. This is what has been labeled in traditional texts of South Asian philosophy as ahamkara or asmita. This refers to the sense of self we create and hold in the mind, or what we can think about as our "I-ness".
As Western psychology progressed in the twentieth century (and certainly drew some influence from South Asian philosophies) this became known more and more as the "ego". Presently, discussions of ego have led us to think about "two types". They are as follows: Type 1 Ego — Thinking that the way you see the world is obviously the way that everyone sees it, and even the way that the world truly is. Type 2 Ego — Thinking that the way you see the world is profoundly different from how everyone else sees it. These are entirely different on the surface level, but have the same root problem. Type 1 believes that because we see the world in specific ways, it only makes sense that everyone else shares those ideas. This leaves no room for different perspectives or experiences. Instead, a Type 1 ego believes there is just simply how the world is, and that that version of reality is the one that we have created in our own mind. Reality is not how the world is, but rather, reality is how the world is in our mind. Type 2 believes that we are the only ones who see and understand reality. We can see the truth but no one else can. This again places us in a unique position where we hold the singular key to reality. Only this time, we believe that no one else is capable or has yet realized the truth we think we can see clearly. These are both born of the same problem. Of course we do have a sense of self and it is actually useful in the world. However traditions of yoga and meditation believe we must recognize that we hold a sense of self and not mistake that sense for reality. We may recognize that we think we are unique like in Type 2, but that is not the same as believing it to be true and basing our understanding of reality around it. The problem with the two types of ego is not that they exist, but that we tend to accept them for reality. The practice becomes recognizing the ego for what it is: the sense of self. Not for what it is not: singular reality.  First, let's get the irony out of the way. Yes, this is a blog on the internet and we are posting it with the intention that you might read it. Now for the point of the blog...
When we are trying to learn about yoga, we often turn to whatever resources we have available to us. Friends, teachers, books, and of course, the internet. As the internet becomes more and more available and now, with the prominence of AI, this becomes the easiest go-to source for "information". However, the internet and especially AI will tell you a lot of wrong information. (By wrong information, we don't mean a "wrong" opinion. We mean that the information it provides does not correspond with reality in the form of textual, archeological or scholarly evidence that is available to us.) It is becoming clear that AI lies. However, even without resorting to lying, the internet and AI do not have the ability to sort good information from bad information. The good news: you do! The human mind can think about what source their information is coming from and from there, decide how useful it is. Someone who devotes their entire life to studying a subject will have a better understanding of the subject than someone who doesn't. A business who wants to sell something will have a different approach to information than a person without financial stakes. Scholarly publications on yoga are a useful place to start if you want to learn more about yoga. Yes, they can be dense and hard to get through. But they are scrutinized heavily by others in the field of yoga who know about the same information, by the publishers and by reviewers. This makes the quality of information not perfect, but more reliable than what Google will tell you (unless of course, Google is sourcing a high quality piece of information). Easy access to information does not make the information true. Sadly, we have seen a pretty substantial increase in the acceptance of misleading or untrue information around yoga in the last year. Let's all do our part to check the validity of our sources, and when in doubt, try to choose a book written by an expert, over Google or AI.  10 Years Ago we started a little thing called Practice Week. We set out to build something that we, as yogis ourselves, wanted to see in the world: space and time dedicated to practice.
We felt this should not be a place to learn to teach or to perform. Rather this was to be a place of developing a commitment to yogic practice; an immersive space to find inspiration and to commit to the discipline necessary for growth. A few people came back in 2016. We were surprised anyone showed up! (And also ok if no one did.) Several of those that did come camped on our living room floor. Then a decade went by and Ghosh Yoga rooted itself all over the world. Now yogis gather yearly at Practice Week, in Ghosh Yoga Teacher Trainings, in studios and community spaces, and in their own homes simply to practice. Throughout the last 10 years, we have come to find we have much in common. Rooted in our individual commitments to humility, discipline and knowledge, we find that connection is an important part of a sustained life of practice. So, to celebrate a decade of Practice Week and a commitment to both practice and community: We offer the inaugural Ghosh Yoga Festival- March 12-15, 2026. We will gather with each other to celebrate and deepen both our individual yoga practices and the community we've all built. Details: Ghosh Yoga Festival March 12-15, 2026 Tampa, FL USA Tickets available July 1st  There are many instructions given to students of yoga. They are not all created equally. Some are supported by evidence, some are not. Some are historical, some are contemporary. Some are in favor of physical health, some are in favor of a liberation in a metaphysical sense. Some draw from science, some draw from religious text. You get the idea...
Yoga can, and often does, carry the weight of tradition. This means we are keen to accept instructions we hear because we believe them to be in some way to be ancient, informed, proven or magically powerful. Because of this, we have to be careful. While it is perfectly reasonable (in most cases) to try an instruction given by a yoga teacher, it does not mean that it is always a quality instruction. By that, we mean the following: not everything said in yoga classrooms makes sense, has evidence, is accurate or is useful. If you do not understand something, it is certainly possible you are new to it and you need time to make sense of it. However, it is also possible that your misunderstanding is due to the fact that it doesn't make sense! The problem can be the instruction, not your ability to understand it. For example, imagine you are standing in Chair pose. Your quadriceps are burning and your legs feel tired. (This is reasonable because those are the muscles holding you in position. It is a lower body posture.) You hear the teacher talking endlessly about the arms. You feel confused. You can focus on your arms but they are not what you are feeling in the posture. In this instance, you get confused. Your common sense is leading you one way and the instructions are leading you another. Or imagine your abdomen is tightly engaged in the position pictured above. The instructor says "take a deep inhale". You feel a sense of tightness or even panic because you cannot maintain the position and deeply breathe in. But this is not because you are doing it wrong or are not good at it: this is because it is muscularly impossible to breathe in deeply while the abdomen is engaged. The physical reality of breathing and abdominal engagement means the instruction you were given is not useful, and your common sense about how it feels is correct. In a perfect world, all yoga teachers would give informed, precise and useful instructions at all times. However, this isn't the case. As students of yoga we should do our best to learn from quality teachers and certainly stay open to the process of making sense of things we do not yet understand. However, we should remain alert to the fact that there are less than ideal instructions being confidently delivered to students regularly. If you hear something that is in conflict with your common sense, take note. Learning is not believing everything we hear. It is a process of keeping our minds open as a humble students, seeking information, yet filtering it for quality, reliability and usefulness. |
AUTHORS
Scott & Ida are Yoga Acharyas (Masters of Yoga). They are scholars as well as practitioners of yogic postures, breath control and meditation. They are the head teachers of Ghosh Yoga.
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