Have you ever been through an uncomfortable time in your life?
Something that you would have done anything to avoid?
I’m sure most of us have had those kind of experiences.
And it is never easy.
Sometimes you even make plans to avoid facing up to the discomfort.
And sometimes, those plans don’t work out and you find yourself where you didn’t want to be.
Your first reaction might be fear.
Or annoyance that your carefully designed plans didn’t work out.
But after a while, you might notice a slight feeling of surrendering, of easing into that situation you wanted to avoid.
As that feeling starts to grow, you might begin to feel a bit more confident in yourself and your ability to deal with the stuff of life.
This new found confidence gets stored somewhere in your mind and the next time you come up against something challenging, your fear will still be there, but ever so slightly smaller.
Your yoga practice can help you build your self-confidence and resilience to life.
By working around your boundaries.
Your yoga practice can put you in situations that you would rather avoid and see you through to the other side.
It happens without you even noticing:
- When you do something in a yoga class that you had no idea you could do
- When you are asked to hold a pose, and you do it. Breathing through (or quietly swearing through!) the discomfort of a slightly longer hold
- When you are given options and you decide to give something a go, even though it looks hard
- When you say yes to having another go at the triangle pose when you are wondering if it’s time for the relaxation yet
Baby steps
We are creatures of comfort and there is nothing wrong with that.
Sometimes unfortunately, discomfort comes our way and we can’t avoid it.
An easy way to start playing around with discomfort is to put yourself in safe but slightly challenging situations, and a careful designed yoga practice will do exactly that.
And remember to be kind to yourself, not every day is a day to go and push the boundaries!
For those days when you feel like pushing the boundaries, here is a 16 minutes yoga sequence that includes a few warrior poses.