Transformation Tuesday

I'm not a flexible yogi. Strength-based poses have always come more naturally to me physically, as well as always appealed to me more in general. (#armbalancdaddict !) 

(Splits! Ugh!) 

I remember my first yoga class. I was amazed at what the woman in front of me could do. I wanted to be able to roll over my toes from updog to downdog, to do a headstand. Now, over seven years later, I want to be able to reach my foot overhead in pigeon, to always hit handstand, to do a split and lotus, to press up into forearmstand. I see people in classes able to do these things I have yet to do, and a little envy spurts out. This is why in my classes I preach that everyone has different strengths, capabilities, practices. To allow your neighbors in class to inspire you, but not intimidate you. I remind my students to enjoy THEIR practices on the mat on that day no matter what that means, no matter what I say as the instructor or what their neighbor does or what they were able to do the day before on the mat. Some of us are naturally flexible, some of us are naturally stronger. We all have poses we love and poses we hate, strengths and weaknesses. I do this because I remind myself of all of this constantly. 

Take crow pose "bakasana" for example. For some people, this is a really hard pose. Lifting their feet while keeping their head lifted seems impossible. Forget about straightening the arms or flowing into tripod headstand. Crow came pretty quickly to me. I love incorporating it into flows and playing with funky variations. Students have scoffed when I've demoed, claiming I make it look so easy. (Disclaimer: I do practice arm balances and inversions a lot!) However, on the flip side... I am NOT flexible (for a yogi). Some of those same students rolling their eyes at me because we're working on handstand again will easily be in splits or full king puff pigeon while I'm struggling lining up blocks and straps on my mat. I look across the room in the ashtanga class I've been taking lately and see some of the girls binding with their back leg in hanumanasana splits, eyes closed and a slight smile on their lips as if they'd rather be no where else, and I'm so far away from getting my hips on the ground that my arms are still straight. What some flexible yogis can do first thing they roll out of bed I can't even think about doing even after a hot class focusing on that. We all have the poses we're working on, and we all have the poses we rock! 

We are all students. Even the most (seemingly) "advanced" yoga practitioner is still a student. There is always a new pose, a new variation, a new flow, a new plane of meditative state. It's a good thing that I want to continue to be challenged and have goals, on the mat and off. It's also good to occasionally look back and see how far I've come, from where I've come. Yoga specifically, it's one reason I love yoga pictures. Not only can I see what otherwise I'd only be able to feel (I can see if I need to shift a foot in or relax a shoulder), but I can track my progress. When I continue to get frustrated by my limitations or set back by an injury, I like to look back and remember how it was at the beginning. I remember that shy (in the yoga studio anyway) college freshman struggling to keep my sweat-soaked cotton pants up as I shifted from foreign movement to more foreign movement. Headstand is now restorative to me, and rolling over my toes happens every time I take a vinyasa (so a million per class). 

We are always growing and changing. It might not be continuously upward and forward. There will be stalls, injuries, steps back with which to contend as we strive to progress. Walking the fine line of not becoming complacent but also honoring your true limitations is only one of many lessons I've learned on my mat. From my mat. Setting the goal, do what you can to work toward it, honor yourself along the way, and remember how far you've come. It's all part of the journey.