Nurturing your body by taking it easy in yoga vs. being lazy: How do you know the difference?

Is your yoga sometimes an escape? Do you go to class when you are feeling bored or escaping life, and therefore give life its purpose through your yoga practice? It doesn't matter if it's hardcore or not.

take it easy some days

It's not necessary to expend a 100% effort during every yoga practice. Some days your body needs more tender loving care, and it's better that you show up on your mat than not at all. These can be the most transformative days that rewire your brain, in fact—the days when you are not motivated to go to class and you go anyway.

practice relaxation in life

These chances on your mat could also be practice for emulating a more relaxed way of being in life, feeling pose by pose that you may be better off (even more productive) to go slower. You may realize here that the key to ideas, creativity and life unfolds naturally, and does not respond to pushing.

are you being lazy?

But if you take the easy way often (just because you did it last time and the time before), are you training yourself to be lazy when you are potentially on your way to your physical best where you are capable of breaking through to a new level? If you let laziness get the best of you, you hold yourself back from the mind and body's largest lessons. You also set yourself up for laziness once you return home, from work to household chores.

live with elegance

On the flip side, if you push to the max in every class, competing with yourself every day, this mentality makes it into your life—where it's important to live a balance between effort and elegance.

I flip back and forth between the two, trying to be real with my reasoning. When I notice a bad pattern, I question it, realize it, and then try to bring it into my conscious brain during my next yoga class. I have been going to early morning yoga almost every morning for 6 weeks now, and sometimes doubling up with evening classes too. In this space I have created for myself—sort of a mini yoga retreat—I don't give myself the chance to slack off. Even if my practice is mellow that day, my mind is alive and awake, evolving.

I am carving through what holds me back in life:

boredom

impatience

overthinking

anger

negativity

escape

physical weakness

physical injury

sleepiness

time

mothering worries

too many words

not enough words

wrong choice of words

lack of motivation

self-critique

etc.

intuition

I am looking each in the eye (with my third eye) and showing it "I'm on to you." In doing so, I'm becoming bolder and more attuned to true content and happiness. My intuition has now taken over. Try it...

© 2013 Yoga Robin®

Comments

[Omprakash Bera]

Hi,
Nice blog! Yes, Yoga is the best alternative of every physical workout which helps to maintain balance among entire body. Thank you for providing this valuable details.

[robin]

Thanks you for commenting. Glad you like my blog and I hope you visit again.
Yes, balance is so important in life... I revisit this idea myself often, almost daily.. -robin

[robin]

Thanks, ListMania @buylists for retweeting and passing along my article to your many followers on Twitter. -robin

[robin]

Thanks, 306phoenixhouse @306phoenixhouse for retweeting my article to all of your many Twitter followers.. -robin