Started the day with some gentle yoga practice and a warm shower. A morning spent with my mother enjoying a lovely lunch. I don’t have to take a flight and leave this place. My cat napping close to me, a coffee, some music, and me doing something I love…. I am a lucky girl!
In today’s post, I wanted to go a bit further into effective yoga practice.
Quite often, when someone starts practicing yoga expects immediate results. Some of the benefits can indeed be experienced right away but, for most of them, it takes lots of practice and patience.
Sometimes, however, happens that we are not having the right approach to practice, therefore the results are just getting stuck.
I already talked a lot in a previous post on the importance of making yoga a daily habit so again, practice comes first, but being realistic with your expectations is crucial.
Be realistic with yourself
When you start practicing yoga you might see your teacher or people on the internet doing super-advanced asanas and you may be led to think that in a short time you will be able to do the same but you will soon understand that these positions are much harder than you think.
The truth is that these are the results of constant practice through years so, when you start doing yoga, don’t think that you can straight away make the most advanced asanas, otherwise you will hurt yourself.
When you practice, always consider your physical problems, your age, and your condition at that exact time.
You can adapt the practice to yourself so if you have a specific problem, you can work on that, or if you are tired because you’ve had a heavy day at work, you won’t push too much, rather seek relaxation.
If you are not realistic with yourself you will only be disappointed by the practice, while you should only be happy with the small steps forward you are making.
A great result is made of many small improvements!
Even if you cannot practice every day, when you do it, do it with all yourself! Make always the most of it and take nothing for granted.
Sometimes you can think you’ll never be able to make a handstand but, if you do, you’ll learn that you can go far beyond what you think your limits are.
Yoga can gently remove your physical and mental limitations by dramatically widening your potential and making disappear bad habits and negative thoughts. But to get to this you have to do your best when you’re on your mat!
Inhaling patience
Breathing must be the guide to your practice. It should always be slow and deep and you should never hold your breath. Thanks to it you can relax into the asanas and penetrate deeply into the effects of the practice. …and remember: BE PATIENT!
I’m sure it happens a lot to you too: from the moment you get up in the morning your day is like a race. You have a fast breakfast, then you find yourself in the traffic and you try to be on time at work, in the office, you don’t even have time for coffee, you eat your lunch in a bite and you continue flying through the day.
Our society, unfortunately, is built to make us hurry but, while you practice yoga, you’d better leave this attitude.
Since the beginning of your practice, you’ll feel better but, as said, great improvements take a long time. It’s a fact! haha don’t fight it, just accept it and relax! 🙂
You have to give your body time to react in your own pace. Being patient and not having a hurry while practicing is vital. If you work too hard to get to touch the ground with your palms in Uttanasana (standing forward bend), for example, you will just hyper-thread the muscles involved, so there will be no improvements, and the next day you will have pain in that area. True story!
Only when you leave the hurry and you are truly patient, you will make great steps forward!
With love…
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