Last night in my yoga class, a participant shared that a specific pose felt uncomfortable. And this is not unusual, we all have those poses we hope the teacher will skip. They may be it’s a long hold. Maybe it’s a twist that stops your breath. Could be a pose that reminds you that your muscles are weak. Or a forward fold that feel totally inaccessible. Maybe your body doesn’t like it. Or your mind is complaining. Or, most likely, both. Yoga is often presented as this easy, peaceful, calm activity but it is not. Not necessarily. And unfortunately, the poses we avoid are the ones we need most.
Why?
Sometimes the discomfort comes from the novelty. We tend to use our bodies in a certain way that becomes almost automatic. That’s very effective but it means that certain movements or positions will be unfamiliar. If you never lift your arms above your head, the first time you do it you might not go too far. Tissues change with inactivity. They dry up, shorten and shrivel. So we will naturally hit resistance when we introduce the movement again. By persevering, staying in that uncomfortable space, we begin to hydrate the tissues and nourish the joints in ways that our everyday movements might never do. We wake up parts of our bodies that might have been asleep for a while. And what’s more, our nervous system also relaxes as it doesn’t perceive this movement as a threatening one anymore. So over time, this discomfort leads to a much greater sense of ease and a wider range of functional mobility in our daily lives.
The truth comes first
Comfort does eventually come with the practice, but the truth of where we are at the moment must come first. If we only ever practice what we find easy and never go against the resistance, we simply reinforce our patterns. When we stop viewing discomfort as a mistake and start seeing it as an opportunity, then the practice shifts to a meaningful conversation with ourselves.
So even though it can be tough, we show up, we breathe through the resistance, and we find out what’s on the other side. And usually, it will be a body that feels a moves better, a quieter mind and a much stronger sense of our own power.
