Just as a runner does not do
a marathon, he or she spends hours, days, months and years training in order to
run (do) marathons. Dancers don’t just wake up one day and perform complex
choreography with ease, they practice daily for weeks, months and years.
This is why, as a yoga teacher, I get
weary of hearing “I can’t do that” or “I can’t do yoga”. I am weary because I
couldn’t do 98% of what I do now when I started, either! I did not get to where
I am now by magic; I wasn’t at all flexible when I started, my posture was poor,
and my core and many other muscles were weak. Fortunately, I have had great
teachers and attended many helpful workshops and training. I have been to
classes ranging from horrible to excellent.
Mostly, I work hard at it every day
with my mind as focused as possible every moment of the practice. And when I find a good teacher, I stay with him or her so that they know me
and know what is hard for me. (Because I try to avoid what is hard. Yup, I do
this too!)
The other reason yoga teachers get
tired of hearing “I can’t do that” or “I can’t do yoga” is that we know it is not
true. We see people practice yoga who let nothing
stand in their way. Personally, I have practiced yoga with a person missing an
arm, another person dealing with multiple sclerosis, and people recovering from
cancer treatments and surgeries.
The main reason I am weary of hearing
this (and I suppose most other teachers are also) is because it is a self-fulfilling-prophecy.
It keeps you from starting and inhibits
progress when you do start.
If you have ever tried to teach a kid
to swim or ride a bike you know exactly what I am talking about. All those
attempts when they didn’t believe they could do it didn’t bring success! Yet
once they start to believe even slightly “maybe I can do this”, the attempts
become successful. This isn’t just true
for kids!!! It is true for adults as
well. I and my yoga friends often talk
about why we struggle with certain poses, for example I was (still am)
frightened of arm balances and handstand poses. I know the problem is in my
mind – my thinking “I can’t do this” or fear “what if I fall, and get hurt”.
Intellectually I know this is ridiculous because I can do these with a spotter
or teacher standing next to and supporting me, and I have fallen and not gotten
hurt. It might be ten or one hundred
more attempts before I believe I can do
it and/ or get past fear enough to actually succeed.
So keep trying, keep practicing, there
is no finish line.
YES! It is difficult, and yes it does take
discipline. It is especially difficult if you are not active, athletic or young.
It is also especially difficult living the
modern urban lifestyle. I wrote a whole blog addressing this *WHY IS YOGA SO DIFFICULT FOR
PEOPLE LIVING MODERN, URBAN AND SUBURBAN LIFESTYLES?
All the best, Christina
