The Struggle is Real

I finally got into a pose that I have been working on forever – eka pada bakasana or one-legged crow pose.

I was super-excited, had the camera all set up, and was ready to post it on my January Instagram challenge for the Chicago Yoga Lab.  I open up the app to begin the process of editing only to find out that my extended leg was cut off by the angle of the camera.

No problem I thought….I’ll just do it again.

And again.

And again.

Well you get the point.  The again never happened.  Such is the life of a yogi.  Our egos are always being put in check.  And how lucky are we?  The struggle is real.  And if you ask any yogi, they absolutely love it.

Kate and I tell this story between ourselves all the time.  If anyone knew how many handstands Kate did until she finally held that first one past 15 seconds or the hours and hours of work it took me to finally touch my toes on my head in scorpion, they might question our sanity.    Kate and I love to work on a pose that is difficult for us physically, because we find that the mental work that something like that requires is where all the good stuff happens.

Working on something difficult and then achieving it is empowering.  It teaches us patience with ourselves.  We learn self-compassion.  We know what that took, right?  So then, what we hope is we take that off the mat and we learn to treat our fellow humans with that same compassion because we know there working on stuff too.  Maybe we even starting rooting for them to get it too.

So the next time you are on Instagram looking at all those absolutely beautiful expressions of yoga asana – be inspired not defeated and know that behind all of those poses is a yogi who is working their butt off just like you.  Celebrate all those falls, missed binds, and photo bombers,. You are heading in the right direction.