The Journey

"Yoga is the journey of the self
     Through the self
          To the self"
~ The Bahagavad Gita

When you’re not able to nail a pose, you have an incredible opportunity if you’re not yet nailing it. Consider that as a gift, because you are being delivered an opportunity to look at yourself and see how you are when you’re challenged. And how you are when things don’t come easily and quickly. In seeing that, you have the opportunity to make a choice.

Can you choose to revert to your stories (Examples: I’m not good enough, I’m too heavy, I’m too weak, etc) or you can choose to say, “Okay, this isn’t easy, and I’m going to commit without being attached to the outcome. I will commit to showing up and doing the work over and over and over.”

This is so many of us. This is human. This is what we do - we assign meaning to things.

An event is neutral. Something occurring, in and of itself, doesn’t have any meaning. Face-planting or not being able to get into crow pose is a neutral event. It’s neither good nor bad, it’s just a fact. 

But what we do is we assign a meaning - “I didn’t get into crow pose, therefore I’m too heavy, I’m too weak, I suck.” Or “I didn’t get into a crow pose, which means that I’m doing it wrong, I’m not understanding it, other people are better than me…”

The invitation here is to look at where else in your life does that happen? Whatever is happening on your yoga mat is happening within the rest of your life. 

If any of this resonates with you, think about where else you find something challenging and you then create a story that you’re not good enough when the only reality is that it takes practice and commitment.

I recall being told that you either get the results that you want or the lesson that you need. In this case, if you’re not nailing your arm balances, maybe the lesson that you need is that you get to be kind and loving to yourself. Maybe the lesson is that you tend to get frustrated when you try something 3 or 4 times and you give up. Maybe the lesson is that all it’s going to require from you is belief in yourself, trust, and a choice to stick with it until you succeed.

Remember: You are not your results. Not achieving the things you want does not make you any less worthy. It is a part of your journey. The results will come - they are the fruits of your journey, and if you are not willing to travel your journey and only want the results, you will find yourself stuck.