Nobody knows your body like you do
One of our most dedicated students is the picture of health. She can move well, she practices remarkably consistently, and she gets a lot out of Yoga.
She’s also had a double hip replacement, and has arthritis in her toes. And this means there’s some poses that she needs to modify to suit her body.
Because I’ve known her for years, and she’s felt comfortable to share her medical history with me, I understand why her practice differs slightly. But this is not usually the case!
When people tell us about injuries, we’ll offer options where we can. But we’re not trained in every health condition – we’re Yoga teachers, not doctors or physiotherapists! It’s outside of our scope to tell students what they should, or shouldn’t, do. That information should come from a health professional. And worse than advising someone on their individual situation is physically adjusting that person when they’re in a pose.
If you have an injured knee, and I physically push you deeper into Child’s Pose, I may cause further injury. If you have a shoulder injury, and I grab your arms and externally rotate them in Downward-Facing Dog, you could well walk out of the class in worse shape than when you arrived.
But if I give you permission to move within your range of motion, finding that sweet spot between not enough and too much, and offer alternative variations of the pose for different bodies – you’re much more likely to walk away feeling wonderful in your body.
In pursuit of the perfect pose
I always love meeting those students that are chasing perfection in their practice. They want to know exactly how a pose should look. Interestingly, they tend to focus less on how a pose should feel, which I would argue is much more useful. And often, we’re asked for physical adjustments to assist on this path to perfection.
This pursuit of perfection is admirable, but the concept of perfection is a challenging one.
If you’re a runner, do you expect to beat your 5k time every time you go out for a run? Of course not. You’ll have good days and bad, and what really matters is how that run makes you feel – not the PB you’re chasing to impress your friends on Strava.
I wholeheartedly believe that wanting to improve your practice and challenge yourself more is a wonderful thing. But accepting that the practice feels the way it feels today, right now, without comparison to others, or yourself at other times – that is Yoga.
I’ll leave you with a (slightly paraphrased) quote from the profoundly wise Prasad Rangnekar.
The emphasis on perfection in popular Yogic culture is real. The pressures of wanting to be perfect, especially with regards to the body, poses and Yogic lifestyle influence many yoga practitioners, mainly the new ones. So, here’s some thoughts about it.
Yoga is not about being perfect, because the being is already perfect. One can’t become what one already is.
The perfection of body, pose, behaviour, emotion and morality is an illusion, because these things are transient, and whatever is transient is not regarded as perfect in the Yogic view. Your asana will never be perfect, your behaviour will never be ideal – so why get frustrated perfecting that which can never be perfected?
So, what to do then?
Focus on being sincere to the Process, instead of being obsessed by Perfection.
Chasing perfection is exhausting – I’m sure you know what I mean. It’s like looking for black cat in a dark room.
Personally, over the years I’ve realized how beautiful imperfections are. I’ve fallen in love with my incompleteness. I’ve embraced my inadequacies and rejoiced in my failures because, over time, I’ve failed so many times that life itself seems like a big joke!
A little child is not an imperfect adult, it is a child. A tiny sprout is not an imperfect tree, it is a sprout. You, as a Yoga practitioner, are not an imperfect Yogi, you are a Yogi in process. Everything imperfect is perfect if we care to drop the notions of perfection.
Live, laugh, learn, let go and move on. Neither take yourself, nor your identity as a student of Yoga seriously, but do take it sincerely.