A lot of times when teaching, I see a lot of tense faces. People often force themselves into yoga poses and get frustrated at the same time.
Recently in my classes, I have been speaking about finding peace in the pose. For instance, when you go into side plank, instead of struggling and forcing, see if you can relax there, find the breath and hold the pose with ease.
You need to factor in your age and experience level when practicing yoga. Let’s say you are 35 years old or 20 years old, and maybe you’ve been practicing for 1 year, 2 years or 2 months, we tend to think that sometimes we need to be further in our practice than we are. Years of tension-building life activities, like poor posture, sleeping in a ball, running, or a physical job where you’re on your feet all day, etc., adds tightness and stress in the body. 2 years of yoga practice, 2 months of yoga practice or 10 years of yoga practice may not fix that. For the amount of time that you are on this planet and the amount of time you have been practicing, it takes time. It takes a long period of time.
I am 20 years into my power yoga practice. I have obviously come a long way. However, there are still poses that don’t feel comfortable. This is due to our daily activities, careers, physical exercise, things that we do everyday day, etc., adding to all that tenseness.
We need to get into the habit of learning to find peace in the pose. Letting go of struggle and not being discouraged.
Maybe trying to find a smile. That’s another thing I’ve been speaking about. Trying to find a smile in your pose and release tension in the face.
It’s not easy when we take into consideration years and years of tenseness. A couple of yoga classes isn’t going to fix that. That’s why it’s called yoga practice and not yoga perfect.
We have to practice. The more we practice, the better it is. Whether it is 2 days a week or 5 days a week, the more time we spend on our mats, the more we undo that.
Namaste!
