comfort is as much about being stronger as it is being flexible
Yoga can ease your daily muscular aches and help you face each day with more comfort.
Feeling more comfortable is going to help you feel happier!
But its not just about stretching…..
Our practice this week is focused on strength building.
Our aches and pains are not always the result of tight and tense muscles. For every tight muscle, there is an associated long weak one. To create balance and comfort we must ensure these weak muscles are strengthened and taking their share of the work. Bodies are complicated, interconnected organisms and we cannot simply divide the body up into separate muscles to “fix”.
We need to consider that often the place where we feel pain is not always where the root cause is. A simple, common example could be long weak upper back coupled with tight short upper abs which causes tension around neck and shoulders and can lead to injury. We can treat the shoulder for relief but to resolve the issue we need to strengthen the lower abs and upper back and open the front of the abs and chest.
In our yoga practice, we learn to mindfully move our body, with great technique and alignment to encourage balance. We listen to our body to choose the appropriate variation of the poses to get the best outcomes for ourselves.
So not simply reaching for what you consider to be the most physically demanding version of any pose. Over reaching may mean you have lost alignment, have poor technique and are over-using the muscles you are trying to rest leaving those you want to work untouched. Being advanced in yoga is being able to keep your ego in check so you are not simply competing with the person on the next mat and are instead creating more harmony as you move,
Yoga is a practice – we will never master it and there is always something to learn. What works today may not tomorrow. As a practice we have to be willing to make gradual steps, small changes which add up to big changes.