Yesterday – November 16th 2015 – marked the six month anniversary since I began my journey into Astanga yoga in Mysore style, six mornings a week; the beginning of six months of continuous, consistent, morning yoga, even on those days recently when the very last thing I wanted to do was get on my mat and sweat and stretch and work.

And it is work, as the founding father Sri K. Pattabhi Jois said,

“Old man, stiff man, weak man, sick man, they can all take practice but only lazy man can’t take practice.”

Ashtanga pushes you past what you thought possible.  Learning to breathe deep and steady at this challenging precipice, right at your edge between what’s comfortable and going too far (into pain), is where internal shifts and transformation can occur.

To mark this milestone, I thought I’d jot down a few of the big lessons this half-year of regular practice has taught me.  There are many many more than what I’ve included here, but these are some of the bigger ones that have cropped up time and time again.

Strength

It is mental as much as physical – more even!  Holding a pose as long as you can and staying on past what you did the day before happens only in the mind.  The body follows the mind; my muscles may not be tired or weak but if my mind is, then their power is gone.

Developing that mental muscle of not quitting when the going gets tough, or giving in because it seems too hard, has given me a sense of a rock-solid base inside me.  It’s given me confidence, a sense that I can do more than I think because many times my thoughts suggested that was enough and yet I stayed on a few more breaths.  That confidence, is like a nourishing foundation from which to meet the world and all its stresses and challenges.

My muscles get stronger with the regular physical effort sure, but inside I’m also stronger than the me from six months ago.  Stronger in my sense of who I am and what I can do.  I have an inner six pack!

Resisting Instant Gratification!

Linked into my lesson on how to develop a core of inner strength (a work still in progress by the way!) is the hugely important teaching on resisting the urge for instant gratification.  This is perhaps my biggest lesson and definitely the first one I met, right at the beginning of this routine, when I battled daily with the part of me that desperately wanted to go for a tasty breakfast or do something fun, rather than get on the mat and work hard for even just twenty minutes…

Even though I always knew the benefit of practising my yoga each morning – how great I would feel afterwards and how much I knew I wanted to keep it going – I still found it really difficult to manage that urge for instant pleasure; to not wait and to have it NOW.  It crops up all the time; zone out on Instagram or Facebook rather than do the housework, sleep in late rather than get up early and get my day started…

We always want the nicer, easier, more pleasurable thing right away!  Putting it off for even just forty minutes can seem like such a challenge.  And sometimes, moving through my regular sequence can seem so daunting and hard when I contemplate lying down in Savasana (corpse pose at the end) or doing anything that doesn’t involve some effort or simple hard work.

But I keep going with my yoga practice because I know at this stage that it’s so much better to put up and carry on with the slightly less fun now, for the satisfaction and happiness it’ll bring afterwards.  And sometimes I do remember it in day-to-day life as well, like when I get on with doing the laundry, tidying up the house and getting my work done first, to enjoy a more relaxing, stress-free later!  And sometimes, if I’m mindful enough, I can actually enjoy the ‘hard work’ too!

Slow and Steady is ok – there’s no race!

The last main lesson of this year in general and so evident in the physical element of my yoga practice, is that real noticeable change occurs through slow and steady patient practice.  I built up my routine incredibly slowly, practising always only as far as my mental/physical capacities would allow, which early on in this journey of mine, was sometimes as little as just fifteen minutes of sun salutations and the next two standing postures.

That took a lot of real patience when my competitive and striving nature wanted to do the fancy complicated poses.  But I calmly and steadily ‘plodded on’ in this manner – for example, on reaching the mile-stone of being able to complete the full standing sequence in my morning practice, I didn’t add on anything new for nearly two months.

But you know what?  That’s totally ok.  Trying to do too much too soon is the sure-fire way to injuring yourself.  And besides – what’s the rush?  Are you doing yoga to twist your body into ‘cool’ and impressive shapes?  Because in that case, just go join the circus or try a gymnastics class!

The ‘goal’ of yoga (if we’re to put that dangerous concept onto such a practice) in my humble opinion is to simply get onto your mat and learn to breathe easily and deeply with whatever arises, accepting fully where you are.  Whether the asana is performed like an Instagram yogi-celebrity or like a total beginner makes no difference.  The quality of focus you bring to it and consistent effort regardless of the shape your body makes – that’s what really matters.

So happy six month anniversary to me!  It hasn’t been easy a lot of the time but the best things in life often aren’t.  And that’s what makes the effort so rewarding!  With much gratitude for the gift that is yoga and my blessed morning routine – Om Shanti Om!

Ellie