It can be hard not to look around during a yoga class at the other people practicing, comparing yourself to your fellow students. You may stare in awe at all the perfectly fit, incredibly flexible "yogis" who transition into and out of each pose with such ease and instinct, it's as though they know what the instructor is going to queue before the words even pass their lips. Sometimes looking at these strong, flexible yogis can be inspiring. Sometimes, though, it can discourage you. Negative thoughts from "why can't my body do that?" to "damn you, hamstrings, why won't you open up!" pass our minds.
On the flip side, maybe you feel like hot stuff one morning in your class. Killing each and every pose with such grace, you're sure the editors of Yoga Journal will bust through the door of the classroom and beg you to be the next cover model. Chaturangaing with ease and fluidity. Scoffing (silently, of course) at the far less flexible person next to you. Prideful thoughts from "everyone must notice how flexible I am!" to "poor sap next to me... his heels down reach the floor in down dog/adho muhka svanasana," invade our mind.
One of the biggest challenges for yogis new and old alike is not comparing yourself to the person next to you... good or bad. The reason is simple. We are all built differently. And you just can't know how the person next to you was built, or the history their body has indured.
They may be naturally flexible. They may have ridiculously tight
hamstrings because they run marathons on the weekend. They may be on their first class. They may have been doing yoga for
twenty years. A person's apparent flexibility is no more a demonstration of their
'yogi status' than is the time that they've been practicing. I can say that
I've been practicing for 15 years. Does that make me 'better' or more of a yogi
than someone who has been practicing six months or a year? Nope. Not at all.
How about flexibility? Is that the sign of a good yogi? Hell no! Because we all
have different bodies. Some are built in a way that allows more space or a
higher range of motion. Some people with extreme flexibility actually need to work on controlling their flexibility -- using more strenth in a pose to stay aligned, safe, and supported.
So, no judgement. Don't worry about the person next to you. Don't worry about how you look. Just be on your mat. Occupy that space with your whole heart. Enjoy every movement you make, every breath you draw in and release, every ounce of strength. If you struggle with thoughts of envy or pride, just bring yourself back to the fact that you are in your body and only your body. And your body- for all it's quirks, problems, and past injuries- is perfect.
What's great about this is in how true it is in every aspect of people. For instance, some people can pick up computer programing languages seemingly on instinct. Others can sing like birds with seemingly little instruction. Still others can put eighty cases of groceries on a shelf in one hour when the average person can only do forty. Others can run 100 miles without tiring.
ReplyDeleteNatural ability and experience account for all of this, and since both qualities are different for every single person, it is literally impossible to judge since that would require you to have the same exact natural ability and experience as the person next to you in order to make any kind of valid comparison.
We crave comparison since it's the most obvious yardstick. And yet every third number is written in Farsi and the actual measurements vary by centimeters and miles.