Fitting in?
Your yoga asana practice should fit you; you don’t need to ‘fit’ in to poses.
Our bodies are wonderful, robust and unique and we don’t need to force them to look a certain way in a yoga pose. This is not to say I’m anti-alignment. I love alignment and cues to help you feel the pose and find stability there. Good alignment can help you sustain your practice long-term, develop body awareness and hone the skill of listening to your body. That being said, yoga poses are not a one size fits all and sometimes in our journey we might find poses we simply can’t make work for us. Yoga postures or asanas are one of the 8 parts to a yoga practice which you can read more about here.
A few years ago my view of the yoga postures began to shift and I am here to share that with you. Over time I have begun to see them as tools.
· Physically they keep our joints and muscles strong and mobile. They boost circulation and support our internal organs.
· Mentally they enable us to practice a steady mind, they enable us to approach challenges in new ways and practice resilience and humility.
· Emotionally they can help us self-regulate, we can begin to see we are more than the emotion moving through us.
· Spiritually they can help us find that connection we are often lacking. We can find it in the communities, living the yoga ethics, in the quiet moments of silence with our breath or within the vibration of OM.
This is just a shortlist of all the benefits of practicing yoga postures or asanas. The Asana is a wonderful tool to access and explore all of this and it’s important to know that within these boundless benefits, lessons and life skills - the benefits don’t start when you find the alignment in the posture. The benefits begin when you walk through the door and find your way to the mat and they stay with you once the mat is folding up and you’re walking through the market place.
“As your teacher I want you to know this to empower you. To give you autonomy over your body, to understand the asanas as tools and not as destinations. ”
This shift can help us practice non-attachment (yama/aparigraha). This is not to say we give up caring completely, as we can and should still approach our practice with tapas (niyama/discipline, dedication) even working towards a yoga posture as a ‘goal’ can be an amazing process. Again, this can be an amazing tool for practicing steady effort in a direction and to see how when we apply ourselves, we are capable beyond our belief. My desire in this is to empower you to not make postures ‘fit’ your practice if it begins to feel like a round peg in a square whole.
Abhyasa Vairagya
In yoga philosophy there is the balance and play of abhysa and varigraya
Steady effort in the direction you want to go and non-attachment to the outcome.
Now this has boundless applications on and off the yoga mat but within the context of yoga asanas/postures it reminds us we can show up with discipline and dedication and trust the path and the benefits whilst letting go of the final outcome. Enjoying whatever fruits come our way!
Debunked
There is a saying within the Instagram yoga world ‘The pose you avoid the most is the one you need the most’ Its so common its even on a T-shirt!
And I’m here to say this is not always true with some more personal anecdotes.
For me, I always avoid Urdhva Dhanurasana, wheel pose. It doesn’t feel good on my lower back and through years of practice, and helpful teachers I know this pain I feel is not something I should ‘push through’ I actually needed to come back to basics and work on the alignment and stability. Maybe this pose will never feel good. I am okay with that as I want longevity in my practice and forcing myself to fit this asana would have caused injury.
Another I avoid is Dolphin pose, now this I avoid because its hard. Its hard work and I need to work on my tapas (discipline!) so here I muster the enthusiasm for the hard work and face the pose in ways which support my practice practicing non attachment to how those benefits show themselves!
So if your lower back feels icky, your shoulder pinches or you feel pain consistently in a certain pose; Why not hang around after class? We can unpack it together. There might be ways you can adapt the pose to serve you, or maybe we can find you an alternative pose you can take instead.
“Your body, your practice, your journey.”
Disclaimer: I am talking specifically if you find one or two poses disagree with you, if you get persistent pain off and on your yoga mat that is usually sign to see a health professional!
- Amelia Eady | @ameliagrace.yoga