Honoring Your Limitations vs. Pushing Yourself to the Next Level
Now there’s a fine line if I ever saw one. In yoga, what constitutes pushing yourself deeper in a pose versus knowing and honoring your body’s natural limitations? For some of us, we have naturally tight joints and muscles. Take me for instance: Hamstrings hands (or rather legs) down. As I mentioned, I am occasionally hampered by my shoulder (the right one) as well. For me, the key is breathing deeply and pushing through discomfort, but pulling back at any sign of pain.
This is a part of the practice that I bring into my daily life. I think it’s important to know what your limitations are. In my life, it’s interacting with rude and disrespectful people (I just have a block there). When I’m confronted with someone who treats me without respect, I’ve learned to take a deep breath and push past the discomfort. I make a quick assessment of the situation: Is this an opportunity to help someone (myself included) grow, or is it a lost cause and thus time better spent elsewhere? Let’s take the situation yesterday with the tire. I was not confronted with rude behavior, but a challenge. Changing that tire was just beyond my capabilities, and yes, I have changed tires before (you have to in order to pass drivers ed).
Let’s list the variables: Drivers ed was umpteen years ago, I couldn’t locate the wheel locks (and didn’t know I had wheel locks on the tires), it was 38 degrees and falling, I didn’t have a coat, and I know that my patience runs very thin when doing anything mechanical. All that said, changing the tire was beyond my limitations, and the best choice for me was to call a professional, which I did. Instead, I used the time (what little sunlight that was available to me) to write yesterday’s article.
Now, for everyday situations, yoga included, I think it’s important to know what you’re capable of and assess the situation. Only then can you follow your intuition and know when you’re at a point of pain, and pull back when you need to. To not pull back will only result in pain: physical, mental or (yikes!) both.
This is a part of the practice that I bring into my daily life. I think it’s important to know what your limitations are. In my life, it’s interacting with rude and disrespectful people (I just have a block there). When I’m confronted with someone who treats me without respect, I’ve learned to take a deep breath and push past the discomfort. I make a quick assessment of the situation: Is this an opportunity to help someone (myself included) grow, or is it a lost cause and thus time better spent elsewhere? Let’s take the situation yesterday with the tire. I was not confronted with rude behavior, but a challenge. Changing that tire was just beyond my capabilities, and yes, I have changed tires before (you have to in order to pass drivers ed).
Let’s list the variables: Drivers ed was umpteen years ago, I couldn’t locate the wheel locks (and didn’t know I had wheel locks on the tires), it was 38 degrees and falling, I didn’t have a coat, and I know that my patience runs very thin when doing anything mechanical. All that said, changing the tire was beyond my limitations, and the best choice for me was to call a professional, which I did. Instead, I used the time (what little sunlight that was available to me) to write yesterday’s article.
Now, for everyday situations, yoga included, I think it’s important to know what you’re capable of and assess the situation. Only then can you follow your intuition and know when you’re at a point of pain, and pull back when you need to. To not pull back will only result in pain: physical, mental or (yikes!) both.
posted by Andrea | 7:03 PM
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