Last night, I introduced a new pose in my advanced yoga class.
I knew the ladies had all the prelimnary skills to achieve this pose. Their arms were strong from many sun salutations. We had spent a quite a bit of time practicing three different crane poses. We worked with several twists and came to side crow and noose pose. We were ready!
Now, in yoga, we often don’t achieve a new pose such as this the first time we try it. It often takes a few tries before we can nail it. (Congratulations to Jenna for accomplishing the pose her first time practicing it! Wow!) I remind my clients that we work toward a new pose. We take the steps required to accomplish the pose. It may take months or even years (and we must resign ourselves to the fact that some poses we may never experience fully) to nail a pose. It is the work toward the pose that is most important, in yoga.
Another woman in class has spent her entire life afraid to do a head stand or any type of inversion. They literally scared her. She decided to join the advanced class because the class time worked well for her. I knew she was ready to work toward the more difficult poses we tackle in that class. That client now can work at the wall with forearm balance and headstand. It is so exciting when she takes her feet off the ground! Her confidence has grown tremendously. That’s what yoga does for us.
As we begin any yoga class, I remind everyone to listen to their bodies. We scan our bodies to see if there are areas we need to be careful with for that day. And then I remind them to challenge themselves where they are ready for the challenge. Take that leap of faith and just try the pose or move toward that next level of the pose.
In yoga, a leap of faith is a step toward greater confidence.