Breaking Point
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
How fine is the line between pushing too hard and not pushing hard enough? Obviously to hurt one’s self is pushing to hard but how close to that line are you supposed to go before you stop? I don’t know…How do you even know where the line is? I’ve hurt myself a few times in my yoga practice; hamstring, knees and shoulders. Some from bad form others from surpassing my limit. Now I have a tendency to stop once I get into resistance in a pose. I can feel it… ok, I must be there. I think one of the benefits of practicing with a teacher is that they see when you are at limits created by your mind, but as I’m currently practicing sans teacher, I don’t have that benefit. I practiced with REW last week and a she helped me with a couple of things, both of which revealed to me that I’m not listening to myself as much as I should when I practice which was causing me to sell myself short.
Another discovery I made today was that although I like listening to music when I practice, I think it may be drowning out my thoughts and my breath and my body’s voice. I turned it off today and I found my practice to be much deeper. I think I will still use it occasionally but maybe I’ll try cutting back for a while, see if I can observe that line instead of just assuming I’m somewhere close and backing off.
posted by Chris at 12:12 PM Permalink
5 Comments:
2 quotes from a wise wise person:
(1) "yoga should be fun. if it hurts, you're doing something wrong."
(2) "breathing + prudence + no fear = yoga"
it's really freakin hard to turn these brains of ours to the off position. on the rare occasions i'm succesful at it, i find i no longer fear a pose and stop short, and i don't feel the need to overdo it either.
okay, i don't know how helpful this post is. what i meant in all that blabbering above is: each practice should have its challenges, but try to ensure that the brain (i.e. the ego) isn't running the show.
okay, enough blabbering for one post :-)
1/03/2006 12:53 PM
I think it changes day to day, how much you can push. I'll make a climbing analogy: say you know you can pretty much always lead a 5.10a route. One day, you feel so relaxed and energetic that you check out a 5.10c and think "That looks like fun! I'm going to try it!" With the right mind set, you may just send the route.You've pushed yourself to good effect.
On the other hand, you may look at a 5.12 and say "Come hell or high water, I'm gonna lead that!" Uh, probably not going to work. Maybe this is a poor analogy, but I consider myself a 5.10b yogi. So when I put in a 5.9 effort, it may not be enough. If I shoot for 5.12, I'm probably practicing for my ego ;-)
1/03/2006 1:04 PM
That's a very fine line! I have hurt myself once from yoga, although I'm not sure how and it was pretty painful. Luckily I recovered quickly, but I think its' b/c youth is on my side. I worry, if I might be practicing something wrong now and I might end up doing some long term damage b/c right now it feels okay...I suppose if you don't feel comfortable enough in certain poses at a certain moment, I wouldn't push yourself to the limit. Move slowly into it...patience is a virtue in my yoga practice.
1/03/2006 1:20 PM
There's no formula. In the midst of a practice that asks us to tune out our "minds" in favor of the "self", there is something to be said for being "mindful"...recognizing when the MIND is speaking, versus when the BODY is speaking. Recognizing when fear of going further is keeping us from moving forward or is even possibly creating a setting for injury (tightening up the shoulders, for example). Recognizing when we really shouldn't be pushing any further. I hate to even USE the word pushing. I tend to talk about snuggling up to one's edge, moving slowly to the edge, where you feel sensation but no pain. That's enough of an edge. You don't need to go further than that...
Lauren
1/04/2006 1:25 AM
Thank you all for such great comments. It's a part of our practice that contstantly changes from day to day,as our minds and bodies change and finds itself elusive when trying to put into words. Karen, you can't go wrong with a climbing analogy but your comment really makes me want the snow to go away so I can hit the rock again...
1/04/2006 1:09 PM
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