Post-Interview (In-Person)

Here is a challenge. While reading this post, try to embrace mindfulness. Try to concentrate only on this post and nothing else. Not how uncomfortable your sitting, not what you’re going to eat for dinner, or how behind you are on your work. If you can do this, you can just begin to understand this little aspect of yoga. Try to be mindful not mind full.

After her gentle yoga class, Karen Carraro, from Virtua Center for Health Fitness in Washington Township, sat down with me in the cafe area. The cafe was closing in an hour so it was fairly empty. We chose an empty table for four and sat down adjacent to each other. I took out my notebook and a pencil. She said, “So where would you like to start?”

I asked her to tell me a little about herself and her getting started in yoga. She explained that she started her yoga a little differently. She actually got into mindfulness first. Karen experienced a death in her family and turned to mindfulness to help cope. Her former career was highly involved with researching. So, she took to what she knew and researched. Karen realized she needed to strengthen her emotional capacity. While practicing mindfulness, she realized she really struggled to sit still.

 

So, she decided to try yoga. Karen explained that doing the physical movements of yoga and ending in the final rest helped her to be more aware of her body, breath, and mind. After her first class, she said she slept so well. Karen decided she wanted to research and learn more. She wanted to become certified in yoga. She studied in Kripalu (which I spelled Kurpalo in my jottings), which is near Albany. She lived there while getting certified.

She went on to explain things like the different sutras (rules/guidelines for yoga), the asanas (postures that prepare you for meditation), linages of yoga (different interpretations of original yoga practice, and much more. She definitely focused a little on Eastern vs. Western practices of yoga and how they differ. She also gave me a lot of great additional readings and places to further practice my yoga.

All in all, I thought the interview went very well. There is however, one major thing I would have changed. I wish I hadn’t taken out my notebook. I was so worried about writing everything down (especially since she uses a lot of yoga discourse–which is difficult to spell/remember–when she speaks). However, I think this took away from the interview because she was looking down at what I was writing the whole time instead of making it flow in a dyadic, conversational way (Post Modern Interviewing).

Please take a look at my fieldnotes jottings during the interview…I think you may agree I might have done better if I waited until after!!