A couple of weeks ago I dropped from a headstand into a backbend (see photos below). Now, that’s a pose I didn’t think was possible with this body in my lifetime. I was just tickled, proud, and inspired to do it over and over again. Since I learned that I can do it, I’ve done it several times on my own and in class. It’s my latest favorite pose. This week I had a similar experience in class. I did another pose (padmasana in headstand – see more photos below) I thought only accessible to the yoga greats. What, I wondered, made me think I couldn’t and what allowed me to break through?
Last week I was chatting with Joe Upton, Sales Manager at Malloy, and he said, “We are bound by the constraints of our familiarity.” And that’s the way it’s been for my yoga practice for some time. There have been years (a decade or two, perhaps) where I practiced the same poses over and over again. And, I’m not complaining. Anyone who studies intensely at one thing knows there are deeper and deeper levels in that subject. Each time I practice yoga there’s another layer of understanding and an application of the learning points to apply in other poses.
There is something, though, getting to a new plateau. For the last couple of years in yoga, I’ve had breakthroughs. Three years ago I went to the Yoga Convention in St. Paul and had a breakthrough in back bends. It was about a year and a half ago that I started to consistently get myself up into handstand. For years my success rate was more like 33%. Then I started accomplishing other poses that I didn’t think I would and that I had struggled with for years. Like a cascade, being bound by the familiarity of the pose has vanished. My body changed, my mind opened and my ability to see and appreciate my progress became clearer.
What was the key? Partly I credit my teacher. She is masterful in little by little, step by step working us from simple and accessible to difficult and then making the difficult accessible. She is supportive, encouraging, yet realistic.
Partly I credit my diligence in keeping up with my yoga practice and my ability to get over the fear. Quieting the mind is helpful in many aspects of life and going upside down in a new way can be considerably thwarted by fear. Taking my practice serious also has helped.
I’m headed to the Yoga Convention in Las Vegas next month. I’m looking forward to crashing through the constraints of the familiarity again.
Very cool – you have worked hard to get to this place.
Maybe it’ll inspire me to create a more regular practice.
E