There’s an especially ironic and built in danger for people who come into yoga from a background of dance, or athletic endeavors like gymnastics or acrobatics. On the surface it seems as though yoga is asking us to do things that are way too easy. Do this shape, do this balance, do that split or arm support….and so on. If you’re a dancer or gymnast like me, these are all movement skills you have. And so it may seem like, “this yoga stuff is easy.” And that’s where the danger is. I wish that it would have been pointed out to me that yoga is not about how far you can go. It’s not about the next level of flexibility that you can push yourself into. Add the self competition inherent in both the dance and gymnast world, and the danger is even bigger. Then there’s the mentality of pushing through pain, a mentality that is present in ALL kinds of people.
One of the reasons I started looking at the basic nature of the body and it’s joints, is to come at the body with a respect for the what the body has adapted to do, over hundreds of millions of years.
Because one of the first things/thoughts people encounter when they start practicing is “oh, why can’t my body do that.” Or “why is my body able to do that so easily and others can’t, even though they’ve been practicing longer?.” We’ve all had this experience in one way or another. The first time we get on our mats with other people, we start noticing the differences.
Some of the questions I think we need to ask is, ” how do I challenge myself to NOT go further in the direction of what’s easy but instead go towards what is challenging.” OR ” At what point do we stop pushing towards something that is difficult because it’s not going to change.” AND “at what point do I stop doing the things that are easy” because I will quite possibly injure myself. I’m am speaking in physical terms, but of course these questions go beyond physical.
I often look back to the roots, the yoga sutras, for clarification; what did