Developing a Yoga Practice - Step 2

In this second in a series of items concerning developing a yoga practice, I discuss the question of ability, performance and your expectations. Getting past what you walk into a yoga studio with, in terms of assumptions and self-beliefs, is very important. Developing a yoga practice - step 2, is about openness and a willingness to be with your limitations.

Don't Despise the Days of Small Beginnings:

There is a lot to learn when you start practising yoga. The pose names may be entirely unfamiliar to you. The sequence of poses may be an absolute mystery to you. Getting to grips with the pose names and the sequence are the easy parts!

For many starting yoga, there is a lifetime of abuse or disuse of your body, or parts of your body, to try to unravel. There may be a history of injury to work with. You may have had children. You may have been working in a sedentary occupation such that you have developed the toxic combination of being both tight and weak in some areas.

The acquisition of familiarity with the poses, their names, their form, their alignment, the action principles of them, and the possibilities of where you can go with them, is not an overnight process. It will take time. Follow the teacher, be prepared to make mistakes, and take your time to build your knowledge of, and familiarity with, the practice.

Your body may take longer to adapt. You will feel immediate results: perhaps some muscle fatigue or a little soreness from use after a period of disuse; perhaps you will have a better night's sleep after class; maybe you will feel more relaxed and aligned to the people and circumstances in your life. But your body's ability to move strongly and freely may take time - a long time by the standards of those for whom instant gratification is the expectation.

Be accepting of what might seem slow progress in terms of your ability at the poses. Stick with the process - it really is working for you.

Avoid the trap of comparison and competition:

A great deal of our lives is run with a competitive element. We compete for grades, for places on sports teams, for roles in plays, for the affection of others. for jobs, for flats or houses on the market.... Competition is hard-wired into our culture. With that competitive mindset, the new student to yoga walks into a studio where others have been practising for years, some for many years, and supposes that they must compete with those around them.

This is an unhelpful attitude. To see someone else's pose being performed with skill may make you aspire to that degree of accomplishment, but it does not mean that you need to achieve that standard NOW. Nor does it mean that a failure or inability to achieve that standard now makes your efforts inferior or a cause for disappointment or shame.

The postures and transitions performed by the more experienced people around you are a great source of instruction - they show you what might be. Use them in that way as inspiration. Do not, however, set their standards as something you must achieve soon, if not in this instant. Nor, should you overreach to try to achieve what you see around you. In the very large majority of cases, the expertise you see around you is grounded in many years of yoga or movement. Finally, your lesser mastery of the poses does not invalidate your work on your mat or make your practice inferior. Do what you can, moment by moment, and what you can achieve will grow over time.

In addition to the students doing all the extras, pay attention to the less glamorous practices of others who are, nonetheless, very experienced. Take guidance from their example - breathe calmly and steadily. Be focused and concentrated. Remove unnecessary and distracting movements and actions from your practice. Hold your head and eyes still and pervade your body with a calm, poised state of stillness.

Your Acceptance of Yourself:

Your acceptance of yourself is more important than doing everything the other students do or every option that the teacher offers. It is a powerful step in developing a yoga practice for you to accept yourself in your present state. Show up for yoga as you are, rather than how you think you should be.

At the same time as accepting yourself for being yourself right now, sense the potential to grow from here to all that you can be. Acceptance is not resignation to the current state. Instead, it is to acknowledge and be honest about the naked reality of the moment, and to use that as the springboard for growth into the future.

Conclusion:

If you are in the process of developing a yoga practice, or wish to start, avoid the traps of persuading yourself that you need to be really able at the practice from the outset and of comparing yourself and competing against students who have different bodies from you and much different experience to you.

If you experience small beginnings, do not despise that. If you see more able students, avoid comparing yourself to them and avoid competing against them. Be humble. Be consistent. Do your best. With patience, watch as you develop a yoga practice of which to be proud.