What’s difficult about Power Yoga is not the intensity or physical challenge it’s actually just the opposite. The old saying goes “any idiot can jam themselves deeper or further”. It can be very challenging to not be that idiot. Growing up in a culture that teaches us “no pain no gain” and “more is better” it’s actually not so difficult to push yourself and incessantly seeking more. It’s actually become perversely natural and if you do find pushing yourself to be too difficult then you think there is something wrong with you and the tendency is to be self critical, which is just another way of pushing yourself. It’s like we are intent on beating ourselves up one way or another.
Could you imagine that the difficulty in pushing oneself is actually coming from some innate knowledge that its wrong? It’s intuitively WRONG. After all that old saying goes “the harder you are at anything the faster you destroy it”. If you want your body to last as long as possible feeling as amazing as possible or anything for that matter the last thing you would want to do is to push it hard. This is common knowledge, but I guess when it comes to exercise it’s overlooked due to cultural programming.
When it comes to health, and the overall wellness of all things, the key is moderation which coincidently is another word for gentle. Which may be the most important quality in any healthy relationship, including the one you have with your body.
It’s true that challenge is an important part of any kind of growth. Yet the type of challenge dictates the type of growth and the end results. So, you could say our culture is partially correct when they say “no pain no gain” yet challenge is the appropriate word, not pain, and there needs to be clarity on the type of challenge. For example, in our sedentary cultural lifestyle physical activation is a necessity for wellbeing yet that does not connote pain. Making yourself take an hour walk each day can be challenging or difficult finding the time or energy but it’s not painful. And walking which is moderate is healthier than running. It’s also challenging to eat less or eat healthier but again it’s not painful. For many it may be challenging to be less aggressive or to be more gentle in all things not just exercise. So again, challenge is important yet so is the type of challenge. The challenge within Power Yoga is to be more moderate, to tune in to the mood you are in and give yourself what you’re needing (this means be more present) as opposed to following the societal script of no pain no gain. This can be very challenging! Who would disagree it’s very challenging to be honest which in many cases means facing one’s fear!
Considering how different we all are, you could easily say not one size fits all. So, if all of our strength and flexibility as well as our stamina and mood are very different how can we all participate in the same class? This is the beauty of Power Yoga as we pick approachable poses which are suitable for most people and then comes the challenge. The challenge is within the special philosophy that encourages each person to discover where they belong in each pose. So even though we are all doing the same pose, we are all doing it differently. This way we can all capitalize on the group energy without disrespecting our uniqueness. This is actually when exercise becomes healing, when one is honoring where they are and the mood that they are in and what they are actually feeling. This is actually why we have feeling to guide us.
sincerely, bryan