Obstacles are predictable. That is to say, whenever we have a brilliant plan, we are guaranteed to face a few obstacles. According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, this journey we call yoga is no different. In sutra 1:30, Patanjali lists nine predictable obstacles – as in, expect these things to come up! So, we all can (or will) probably relate to each of these on some level at least once along our yoga experience.
- Illness or Injury (vyadhi)
- Procrastination or Mental Laziness/Inertia (styana)
- Doubt or Indecision (samshaya)
- Negligence or Carelessness (pramada)
- Laziness (alasya)
- Cravings or Desire (avirati)
- Misunderstanding or Confusion [About the Teachings of Yoga] (bhranti-darshana)
- Frustration [at Failing to Reach the Goal] (alabdha-bhumikatva)
- Discouragement [for Regressing or Failing to Maintain the Goal] (anavasthitatvani)
Illness and Injury
So, here I have the brilliant inspiration to commit myself to 108 days of yoga practice at home, and then wake up the next morning with obstacle #1 knocking me down, because, of course! If Patanjali himself were my teacher, I imagine him shrugging and casually saying, “I told ya so.”
Day one, I woke up with massive inflammation in both my right hip and shoulder – that is to say, the tissues in the joints were so inflamed I could hardly move my arm or leg. At. All. This was no day-after-a-workout-soreness, but full-fledged injury requiring rest, Advil, ice, and Tiger Balm (oh so much Advil and Tiger Balm!). I started considering acupuncture and MRIs… So how did those first 6 days of yoga at home every day turn out???
While my knee-jerk reaction was to think awesome, there goes my asana, but then on second thought, it occurred to me that doing asana could help speed up the healing process, if I applied the right poses. In general, when we have an active, inflamed, acute, angry injury, hitting up a yoga class is a big no-no. A home practice though is definitely in order, precisely because home practices require us to take responsibility and ownership of picking just the right poses for the occasion.
Injury and illness happen. Lucky for us, the body is biologically hardwired for healing. And rather than lamenting the “could have’s”, “would have’s”, and “if only’s”, what if we view injury and illness as an opportunity to find ways to make yoga really serve us?
Yes, I could easily have opted to just continue my daily breathing and meditation practice as per my regular routine, then check the I-did-yoga-today box with a clear conscience, but my big, glaring problem was actually in my musculoskeletal system, and so I actually needed asana, too. In my case, I needed postures that could improve range of motion and blood flow, rehydrating the injured tissues while also not being weight bearing for either the legs or arms. In other words, I spent the week making good friends with all the seated and lying poses in my repertoire.
And the result? It is anecdotal, but the healing was quicker than had I just continued the rest + Advil + ice + Tiger Balm recipe alone. So, I could be back to my old tricks for week number two.
Also, perhaps it is coincidental, but I also have much more steady energy after 30-60 minutes of daily asana all week. Now, I’m not suggesting I’m considering giving up my daily coffee just yet, but I sure am more productive lately, and just in time to take advantage of all the daylight in these longer spring days.
The reality is that I was injured (and for the record, not injured by yoga asana, in this case). But rather than letting injury be an obstacle that hinders or halts my brilliant plans for daily yoga, I found incorporating it into the practice reduced the obstacle to just another part of life. And yoga is there for us in all parts of life, right?
Procrastination and Mental Laziness
True confession:
As a general rule, I only put three things on my to-do list every day. As in, ‘if I can get these three things done today, then no matter what else gets done (or skipped), I’ll still call it a good day.’ However, if there is something that really must be on my list of three (some deadline that can’t be missed, for example), but I am just feeling too mentally lazy to tackle it, then I have this sneaky way of self-sabotaging by creating a really long to-do list that day. Yes, that one must-do is on there, but so are 10 other things, which I will inevitably make a point to do first – unconsciously hoping I will just run out of time and that one dreaded thing will magically disappear. It never disappears. It always just carries over to the next day, but now it is late and I feel bad. Dang!
This is the kind of thing that can become an obstacle to our yoga practice. We essentially de-prioritize yoga, and bury our practice under a dozen other things to do.
These first two obstacles, injury/illness and procrastination/mental laziness, are typically the very things that stop us before we ever really get started. (There is a reason Patanjali lists them first.) We bought the New Client Special at the studio we’ve been eyeing, but we don’t get into class. Or we set up an awesome space to practice at home, then let dust collect on the alter… And the next obstacle often comes right on the heels of these.
Doubt or Indecision
Once we’ve experienced the stoppage caused by illness/injury or procrastination/mental inertia, we open the door for doubt and indecision to come barging in. “Well, I already missed three days. Should I even bother getting my mat out today?”
Doubt fuels our mind’s inherent tendency to be easily distracted and unfocussed. Doubt crowds out inspiration and motivation.
Once we doubt, even in the slightest, however brilliant our initial idea to do yoga had been, we become indecisive about where to put our focus and energy. We get distracted by all the other shiny, great ideas out there. Basically, we lose our stick-to-it-ness.
Negligence or Carelessness
Once injury/illness, procrastination/mental inertia, and doubt/indecision have worn us down, we can easily just become negligent or careless about practicing yoga. We aren’t putting in the time, energy, or effort to practice, and so we are experiencing no benefit from it. And yoga become ‘meh’. And who wants to do something that is ‘meh’?!
This one also often shows up when we overindulge in life (see “Getting Distracted by Life” below) and leave ourselves with too little energy or time left to fit our practice into our schedule. We have to make time for what matters, which sometimes means giving up spending our time on things that don’t. Just saying.
Laziness
Yep! Flat out laziness is an obstacle that keeps us from getting anywhere with yoga. We can have all the brilliant ideas and daydreams about how we will look, feel and act once we establish that regular yoga practice for ourselves; however, wishing it does not make it so. We must get up, go, and do.
Overcoming laziness is not complicated, but it can seem difficult. We simply have to do it anyway. Even when we don’t feel like it, just do it anyway. Because we get good at what we practice. If we continue to practice laziness, we will get really good at lazy.
And no need to adopt a “go big or go home” attitude. Five minutes counts! So do five minutes of poses, five minutes of mindful breathing, and five minutes of focussed meditation on those days you just don’t feel like yoga. It counts! And the lazy habit starts to lose its grip.
Another true confession:
Laziness is prominent early in the morning for me when I am dragging myself out of bed for my 6 a.m. yoga class. I am not a morning person and don’t usually feel like getting out of bed for early morning yoga. But I do it anyway. And I have yet to regret a single class.
Cravings or Desire (a.k.a. Distracted by Life)
Once we start to get distracted by all the other shiny, great things in life, lose our stick-to-it-ness, and give into carelessness and laziness, we cozy up with cravings and desire – typically craving comfort. Yoga practice is work. A cozy couch and cup of coffee seems shinier than dragging out the mat for a 6 a.m. yoga practice. A glass or two of wine may sound more appealing than putting in the effort to get to that evening yoga class.
Now I am a fan both of coffee on cozy couches and wine with my dinner; however, if these are trumping your yoga practice more often then not, perhaps a reevaluation of priorities is in order, my friend. I’m just sayin…
Misunderstanding or Confusion
After getting caught up in the cycle of skimping on our yoga practice with the previous obstacles, we end up missing out on all the benefits of yoga – because we aren’t doing any of the work. We lose sight of the whole point of yoga.
We might practice so sporadically that we don’t get to know any of the teachings of yoga by heart, and so we are not even sure of the whole point of yoga. It takes time and repetition to learn anything. Time on the mat for muscle memory to kick in and the poses to become familiar. Time on the meditation cushion for the monkey mind to become used to settling so quiet focus becomes easier. And so on.
And when we skip it, we miss out on the benefits. And when we miss the benefits, we lose sight (or never maybe never even get sight) of the whole point of yoga.
We begin to tell ourselves, well if you haven’t got sight of the whole point, then what’s the point in trying? Where’s the motivation? The inspiration? Out the window!
Frustration
Whether we practice yoga for our physical, mental, or spiritual health, we often set lofty goals that set us up for perpetual disappointment. Let’s face it, if the other obstacles are tripping you up so that you never reach your goal – lofty or otherwise – frustration is going to set in.
Unfortunately, once frustration starts to brew, the overly critical self-talk often ensues. Throwing our hands up in despair is quick to follow.
The truth of it:
’21 days to a yoga body’, ‘press into headstand in two weeks’, and ’40 days to a new’ you are all marketing gimmicks.
Yoga was never designed to be a 21-day fix. Stop assigning arbitrary deadlines to your yoga practice. If you’ve been caught up in the gimmicks, let that sink in a moment. And then…
Just show up daily and put in the work. You might be pleasantly surprised how quickly you reach goals, or get other benefits of yoga that you didn’t even know should have been your goal all along!
Discouragement
Nothing quite bursts your bubble like backsliding. Goals were reached. That once elusive pose now has a comfortable ease to it, the sense of peaceful grounding resonates, and Savasana has never felt more utterly blissful. The next time you roll out the mat, that pose is eluding you again, grounding is not happening, and utter bliss is just a fairy tale! What happened?!?
Reality happened.
The reality is, Patanjali writes, that it is our very nature to be consistently inconsistent. Welcome to the human condition, my friends. Backsliding and inconsistency happen. The question is: How do we choose to react to it?
React with discouragement, and your yoga practice suffers. Or concede that perhaps today is not the day for easeful poses, grounded-ness and bliss, but hit the mat again tomorrow because maybe tomorrow will be the day. Not it? Try again the next day. And the next. And again.
Why Can’t Yoga Be Obstacle-Free?
Any or all of these obstacles are bound to happen to your yoga practice. They are expected. In fact, they are part of the practice.
Let’s repeat that, shall we?
Obstacles are expected. They do not arise to block the path. They are the path.
Noticing your obstacles and practicing anyway is the practice of yoga. It is that trendy word you hear yoga teachers throw around called Tapas.
Once, in a day-long yoga workshop with Annie Carpenter, a fellow yogini muttered, “this is really hard.” She was trying to be quiet, but Annie heard her all the same, and replied over her headset for the room of 100+, “well damn it all to hell, why didn’t anyone ever warn us yoga is hard work!?”
While the first 6 days of my self-imposed 108 day yoga challenge started off with a real bang thanks to injury, I practiced anyway. Every day I could just hear Annie say, “well damn it all to hell… yoga is hard work!?”
Yup. But so far, so very worth it.
Stay tuned, my friends. I will be sharing how week two comes along.