Finding Balance On and Off The Mat
Finding the right balance through dosage…
During your yoga practice... How much effort are you putting into a pose? What is correct for you & your body? And what do you need today?
Finding the right dosage can be tricky, but once you become aware of what you need, a whole new world of benefits opens up to you. Receiving these feelings of ease as you strengthen and nourish your body. Letting go of the struggle and instead finding ease in times of discomfort.
How do you do this? During your yoga practice ask yourself...
“Do I need to activate parts of my body to bring more energy or do I need to hold back slightly and find more ease?”
“Can I release gripping in my over active hands and feet, release some of the squeezing in my legs and glutes, let go of my belly as I hold it tightly in?
OR
“Can I activate my hands and feet a little more to bring energy and awareness, can I activate and pull my thighs up, squeeze my glutes?”
How do I find the right amount of dosage?
There is a way to find a balance, we can be strong in our postures but learn to do them in a soft way.
3 ways to soften in your yoga practice whilst keeping the strength:
1. Soften the intensity
2. Soften the muscular contraction
3. Soften your expectation of the pose and practice
Not just physical…
As well as finding dosage in our asanas (our physical postures), we can find dosage within our breath. Can you breathe deeply, increasing the volume of breath you inhale without struggle, without forcing? Become a master of your breath.
We can also find dosage in changing the expectations of ourselves. What are your expectations of yourself when you step on your mat? When you wake up in the morning? During your working day? As a parent, as a partner? Instead of setting high expectations to breathe as deep as possible, to go 100% in every single yoga posture, to move as fast as possible, to work as hard as possible. STEP BACK. TAKE A MOMENT TO FEEL WHAT YOU REALLY NEED.
We know there is no judgment or competition in yoga with other people – so take that information and tell it to yourself. Some days our balance may not be great, some days we may feel a little stiffer, tighter in the muscles. Listen to your body. No judgment, no competition, no expectations.
How fortunate we are when we have been given a good chance in life to practice yoga. This is how you have to see and go ahead with what you have learnt so far. How lucky we are to move, to breathe and to nourish our bodies with our undivided attention and awareness. Do not expect the results without the efforts. I’m not just talking about physical efforts, the effort to listen to yourself, your body.
For some, from the outside, it may seem you are just stretching & strengthening your muscles, but for you, it is a soft process from the core, doing the work internally, strengthening mind as well as body by bringing the attention to how you feel, your needs. Benefiting internally & externally. This is learnt as you progress in your practice. To learn the asana postures and then to learn how to experience what comes up in these postures, how much effort you put in, can you stay and not run out of the posture, can you find ease in times of discomfort.
The questions is: Can you find the balance in between?
Are you the person that is strong all the time, a brave face, has it all together, muscling through life, supporting others, neglecting yourself. OR are you the person, that runs away when things get hard? In life and on the yoga mat, when things are tough, you give up, you don’t want to do it?
Be comfortable in holding back. Be comfortable with not enjoying something. Stop fighting it and don’t run. There’s a lesson in it somewhere, stick around to see if the lesson presents its self to you, and if it doesn’t immediately, then maybe it will show up in a different way or next time you show up on your mat.
When you pull back, you take pressure off yourself, when you don’t push & struggle, you go further. Deeper. Stop gripping and fighting your way through, your practice, your life.
How to stay with the discomfort when you want to run?
Know that you will feel good, feel a sense of achievement, a sense of power and strength afterwards.
It is like being on a rollercoaster – There are the scary parts, the discomfort, and if you stick with that feeling, you get the reward afterwards, the fun part where you scream “Can we go again?! Can we go again?!”
When things get tough or hard, the best thing you can do is hold on and breathe, when things are going well, enjoy those moments. Remember, life is like waves, coming and going, ease and discomfort, they come hand in hand, be brave and enjoy the waves of life.
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