Thinking of the challenging asanas that you have more or less accomplished, what was the process/path like for you?
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Dear stillwater,
for my study being yoga teacher i had to make a paper on what i thought was a very difficult pose for me, with a plan of how to tackle that.
so i did and for a long time tried to do a perfect ardha matsyendrasana. I though there was a lot to learn from it. I tried so hard and long that i ended up herting myself real bad and had to recover for a long time. Now i know that what i realy had to learn was to practice ahimsa way. So now i do this ardha mastyendra asana as a prayer for ahimsa. That is challeging enough for me.
When things are easy is there little learned? Maybe you learned in the past? What you know already you do not have to learn anymore.
Take care.
Louise
Greetings Louise,
Excellent point regarding applying ahimsa to the efforts of our own practice.
And interesting point about the easy things may be things we already know well.
Thanks again.
Namaste’
Please let us know what you mean by challenging asanas? are there any in paticular? The proccess of moving in and out of different postures teaches us something different. Also there are different ways of moving in and out of postures. The proccess is always more important than the posture and each time one goes through a proccess of learning and sensing what is involved and what it does to reorganize the body and open new nerve pathways can be very beneficial whether its the eazy pose,warrior 1,splitz,corpse or headstand. You could even consider the eazy posture (basic sitting) as a challenging posture as it requires a good relationship of flexion and extension.
Regards and love
By challenging I meant any asana that after a ‘long’ time of practice (‘long’ being entirely subjective) you have yet to accomplish.
(As to what constitutes ‘accomplished’, I leave that to you, tho I did wish to avoid a tangent discussion as to whether we ever accomplish any asana, as I am one to believe there is always room for improvement).
I avoided naming specifc asanas 1) because I was not seeking instruction on specific asana from this forum, and 2) I did not feel it helpful to say such-and-such asana is easy for me, but such-and-such is difficult(challenging).
What may be difficult for me may certainly be easy for someone else, and vice versa.
We would seem to agree that the process is more important than the goal.
Also, that even a pose such as svasana(corpse) can be considered difficult to do well.
Thank you for your post.
Namaste’
dear stillwater,
Anything you consider being difficult can be challenging.
I think yoga is not to be done, but Yoga is to be experienced.
Ramana Maharshi said ; Where can i go? i am here.
Namaste Louise
Thanks Louise. That’s a great quote.
For me headstand without a wall was a challenge. I practised yoga as a child and headstand was never a problem. Returning as an adult it was frustrating that I had lost the confidence/balance/coordination that made it so simple as a child. Regaining that felt wonderful, like I was back where I was supposed to be.
Thank yuo JenW for this insight on the headstand - I haver had the same experience with lotus - I have been practising on and off for 35 years and could do lotus fairly easily when in my twenties - now 58 I stared yoga again earnestly about 15 years ago and yet still cannot master lotus - half lotus yes but that’s it - I suppose use it or lose it.
Best
barry
I echo the sentiment – poses I could do as a child I find it a challenge now. This discomfort when I try the pose (e.g. Padmasana) makes me aware of the mis-alignment – both in myself (my life) & my physical self.
My hips are tight hence I can not rest in Padmasana – so now I am taking “baby steps” to free my hips …
This may sound strange but I had deeper inner awareness as a child (when I could do Padmasana) then I do now!
The journey back to where I was (as a child) continues…