Have you ever looked at a yoga pose and thought, "Why!??! Why on earth would I want to contort myself into THAT?"
Then you try it, can't do it and then get annoyed. Then think, "Why can't I swivel my head 180 degrees and lightly place my nose between my butt cheeks?" Finally it's followed by "It's not fair".
Let's break this down...
Why on earth would I want to contort myself into THAT?
In yoga we compress, stretch and twist the tissues of our body rejuvenating it in the process. Rather like an old sponge can be renewed with warm water, a twist, a stretch and a good old squeeze. The trapped grungy particles in the tissues of the sponge are released and carried away by the warm water. Similarly, our tissues are massaged by asana practise releasing toxins and waste products. Even old scar tissue can be broken down and removed.
'Swivelling 'n butt cheeks'
If we were to do a pose analysis on our imaginary '180 degree swivel and nose to butt pose', I would say depending how you get there, but.... if you bent backwards, you'd compress the facets of the vertebrae into each other (which is very healthy for the bones). If you decided to bend forwards, you'd stretch the fascia and muscles and stress the ligaments along the back of the spine. If you twisted your way into it, you'd provide a shearing force between the vertebrae and the ribs, which both compresses and stretches the tissues between the ribs. Suddenly the challenge of the pose makes a little sense.
'It's not fair'
Each of us is built differently and so respond differently to absolutely everything. How does it make any sense to compare ourselves? If I were to serve you my favourite dish, would you drool? If I were to show you a photo of whom I considered to be the sexiest person ever, would you swoon? If I were to tell you a joke in Swahili, would you crack a rib laughing? So it's not fair to say 'it's not fair'. We are different.
Let's rejoice in the things that we can do and rejoice in the things we can't. In general, let's rejoice and push, pull and twist ourselves in the the process whilst perhaps trying to lightly place our noses where the sun don't shine :)
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