Let Us Go Ahead

by Nina

Melting Ice by Michele Macartney-Filgate

This weekend a friend of mine was telling me that even though practicing yoga at home made her feel better, she had been having a hard time getting herself to do practice lately. She asked me whether this was because she somehow felt she wasn’t worthy of setting aside all that time for herself. I just shook my head and said, “Don’t worry about why, just do whatever it takes to get yourself to practice, even just one pose. Bribe yourself by promising yourself a reward afterward, trick yourself into it by casually doing a stretch without even changing your clothes, or find a friend who you have to report back to about how your practice went. These are pretty much the same things I always say to people who are having a hard time getting themselves to practice.

Then the next day, I was reading through the soon-to-be-released Sparks of Divinity from Rodmell Press, which  contains the teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar compiled by Noelle Perez-Christiaens. And I just had to laugh when I saw the following quote:

Sometimes the body says, “Yes,” and the mind says, “Excuse me today.” Sometimes the mind says, “Yes,” and the body, “Excuse me.” I always say, “Let us go ahead.”

Maybe it’s a simple as that.  Sometimes your body has a physical inertia and resists the idea of practice. Sometimes your mind has a mental inertia and resists the idea of practice. And sometimes both your mind and body resist. But without over-analyzing the reasons, you can train yourself to acknowledge that inertia and then just tell yourself, “Let us go ahead.”

Because my friend was having some back pain, I suggested a couple of poses she might try to make herself feel better. Just try them, I urged her. Don’t worry about doing a complete, long practice. Tell yourself the poses are your medicine and you have to take them. Who knows, maybe once you get going, you might feel like doing more. Or maybe that is your practice for now. At least practicing on your own you have the power to do the poses that may make you feel better, rather than just hoping your teacher will present a sequence that will help you.

I’ll check in with her later this week to see if my advice helped. In the meantime, I wanted to share that little gem from Iyengar with you. I’m sure I’ll be sharing many more gems from this book in the days to come, but if you’re interested in reading it for yourself, I highly recommend it.

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