About a month ago, I did a home yoga self practice and it was very hard going! Movement to and fro during surya namaskar was not particularly fluid, and let’s not even talk about hopping forward and back during the Ashtanga sun salutes! Overall, it was a painful experience.
Some poses that I have worked hard at for years and was happy with has been totally lost (trikonasana – can’t touch the floor anymore; all marichyasanas can no longer bind! 😢). I even began to entertain the idea of giving up bodybuilding, after all, it took me years to to slowly receive those yoga poses.
I spoke to a few people during the course of the weeks, about how unhappy I was that my mat practice was so affected my the changes in my body. One morning, before my Flow Class at Aravind Yoga, I was talking to a few practitioners about the situation, I realised one of the biggest parts of this journey is to taste everything, including the disappointments and frustrations.
I realised I embarked on this bodybuilding journey for the experience, and that includes the lows, not just the highs. With the encouragement of great friends and yoga practitioners, and of course Guruji Manoj of Manasa Yoga, plus of course my trainer Kodin of Wong Hong Barbell Club, I am thankfully crawling out of the bitterest experience of my mat practice.
Instead, I am now actually observing that bitterness, tasting it & reflecting on it. And that is yoga too, not just the movement on the mat.