Mistaking rules and regulations for truth
One of my biggest concerns for my yoga students is that they might mistake rules and regulations (the directives) for truth. As yogis, we understand that part of the yogic path is to seek truth. But this requires a lot of introspection. For instance, in downward dog, is it true that the knees should be slightly bent, with a micro-bend in the knees? After some thought, I'm not really sure. There's some room there to seek truth. However, when I teach, I say "keep your knees slightly bent with a micro-bend in the knees", and my students dutifully follow. As beginners, the students may have mistaken my directive for being some deeper truth about the human experience. "Nathan says so, so we do so!" (Is that really yoga?!?)
As teachers, and as students, we should maybe keep a few things in mind. For one, the human body (homo sapiens) has been evolving for about 1.5 million years. That's 1.5 MILLION years! This body can move in very complicated and incredible ways, which we can explore and experience in almost every single moment. On the other hand, most of the basic yoga postures (including those taught in any yoga class ever) have been around for maybe 100 years. 100 years of downward dog, and a 1.5 million year old body? Can it really be so definitive what is the correct way to take a downward dog? I'm not so sure.
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