Balance is Hard
About half-way through a 90-minute hot yoga class, we come to the part that always makes me nervous.
It’s a series of balance poses.
Imagine, you’re already hot and sweaty – and a little out of breath. Now you have to concentrate like never before while placing your body in an incredibly awkward stance and holding it for a minute.
I’ve been practicing hot yoga for some time as a form of cross-training, to keep my body strong and limber, able to manage long days on trail.
So I am very familiar with the first move in the balance series, the hardest one for me: Dandayamana Janusirsana or Standing Head-to-Knee. (say that ten times fast…)
If you do this pose correctly, you’ll look like a giant capital “L.” One leg is locked solid to the floor and the other is stretched out in front, being held up in mid-air by basketed hands. Ultimately, your head will come down to touch that floating leg.
Yes, indeed it is hard! Hard to get into and hard to hold, really for any part of this pose.
It works pretty much every part of the body – the legs, the core and the arms. And it’s also said to have beneficial effects on the mood. But I find that debatable, or at least a very distant reward for being tortured by swirling emotions of doubt and despair for a full-minute.
That’s why it was incredibly powerful when our teacher said a few words before we got started.
After warning us – and validating our feelings – that this is the hardest pose in class, she chipped away further at our angst by saying, “Play with this pose. Just play. And if you fall out, go right back in.” (emphasis mine)
Life Practice
Hot yoga is a great practice for life.
That’s because we “fall out of our poses” a lot just by being alive. We don’t call them poses, but failures, setbacks, or bad luck.
When things go wring, we can feel totally ungrounded, wobbling on one leg as we try to hold the other leg in mid-air.
Picking ourselves back up can be hard! Our emotions can get in the way, as well as our judgements, usually harsh judgments of ourselves.
By taking my teacher’s advice and playing with what was hard, simply going back in if I fell out, helps our minds move forward.
It helps us become resilient.
Get back Up
So how do you get back on your feet when things go awry?
- I start by feeling the feels. Emotions won’t get in the way of the work that needs to be done if you allow yourself to feel them fully. Give yourself permission to be upset or sad or frustrated. Let it rip!
- After that, I prioritize self care. Ask yourself what do I need to do now to take care of me in the best way I can so I can move forward. In yoga, that might mean taking some cleansing breathes or simply stopping and resetting.
- Once my head and heart feel clear, I can then begin to be more analytical. Ask yourself what happened and what can I do differently next time. Try to set small, manageable goals that give you a sense of forward movement. And if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it!
After my teacher said those words in class, I moved more slowly into the pose with a smile and just enjoyed the sensations of my body getting closer and closer to what the pose should look like.
It definitely added levity to the process and kept me in the moment rather than grasping for results with a pass/fail attitude.
That might be why yoga is called a practice, rather than a performance.
When we approach life a little less seriously, we tend to ride the bumps with more freedom and ease. We expect a few bumps along the way – some bigger than others! – but we know we’ll have the strength to get back in if we fall.
Yoga is like life, a practice with unlimited chances to get right back in if we fall out.
The band playing that day picked the music, not me!
