My little man (Ted the Weimaraner) fell off a wall this morning. His proprioception and prediction told him there would be ground beneath his back foot, but the unexpected sometimes happens ! He lost his footing and he had to make a choice – Hold on .. or roll with it? I’m sure his brain was surprised to find the earth disappearing from beneath him. Instead of holding on to this idea of what should have been, he adapted, he owned the fall, twisting his body so he could land gracefully on his front legs, back legs to follow like a little gazelle. It made me smile 😊
Adapting
Adapting the position of your body is what my practice is all about. I love sharing this knowledge with others who are keen to join in easy yoga and do it ‘correctly’. I try to empower them to listen to what their body is telling them and adapt the pose to suit them rather than fitting their body into the pose.
A recent training with Paul Grilley opened my eyes to the differences in the skeletal structures of our bodies from person to person. It was quite literally mind-blowing. No wonder some of us love certain postures while others hate them .. our bodies are completely different. So why should our yoga poses look the same? No amount of flexibility will overcome a skeletal impossibility. Why should we want to do it anyway?!
Instead of holding the Instagram perfect yoga body and pose as the ideal, let’s live in the real world. The one where we have wobbly bits, tight bits, weak bits and we don’t all look fantastic in a pair of leggings. Let’s make the yoga work for us and use it as an introspective tool to guide us in how we can be the best version of ourselves.
A wise teacher once gave out this little gem in a group class and I have recounted it many times in my own teaching: “just because you are flexible it doesn’t mean you’re not an arsehole”. Never a truer word said.
Join me in finding what kind of yoga poses work for your body. Easy Yoga for Every Body is every Tuesday at Kohimarama Yacht Club
