A few weeks ago a student during my Gentle Yoga class was clearly having some issue, or pain, and something was going on in certain postures that were very evident to me. I quietly went over to her and asked if everything is ok. She told me that she was having some achiness in her inner thigh area. Her thought process was to try harder and do more in the pose. Pushing and pushing and hoping that would help. I suggested she do the opposite, pull back and do less. I see this so much in my teaching, the idea that more is better and in fact I say in my classes quite a bit “more is not better”. I am starting to realize that most (let’s say “type A”) people don’t even know what that means and maybe for that matter most people don’t know what that means. So here I am suggesting, in fact pleading that people learn how to pull back, be gentle, not go as “deep” in whatever physical activity their doing. I wonder if we live in a time where we want instant fixes to things as well. After class I spoke with her for a moment and explained my thought process that if something is inflamed or over worked (whatever was actually going on, as I don’t have x-ray vision), that perhaps leaving it alone for a day and seeing if it feels better then you have some more information in which to go on. If something feels better after leaving it alone for a day, then you can probably presume that going harder and deeper is not working. I also, as I mentioned suggested she pull back for a few days and not go as deep in the pose. This week in class, when she came in, I went right over to her and asked how she was feeling, she told me that she did as I suggested and leave it alone for a day or 2 and then in other classes try to be more gentle and pull back a bit and low and behold she feels better.
The moral of this story for me continues to reinforce what my instincts, studying, and living in a human body have been telling me is that more is not better. Being really gentle and going slow and taking things one step at a time is the way to go. I am the type of person as well that when doing a physical activity has the tendency to want to get as much out of the situation as possible and for me that manifested in going as deep, pushing, and as hard as possible. I wanted to really feel something in my body, even when that meant I was possibly hurting myself. I still have to take a deep breath and remind myself that I can give myself permission to slow down, be gentle, not push so hard or deep. I have also learned that by doing so, the benefits, the feeling in my body are far greater than the opposite.
So here’s to slowing down, being gentle, tuning in and feeling great in the one and only body I have!!