One of the things I see in my students all the time (and, of course, feel in my own body) is this need to work hard. As if it doesn't count unless we are giving 163%. But yoga is also about finding ease. Patanjali talks about a steady, stable comfortable posture in the Yoga Sutras. He also talks about using pain for purification but why do we seem to go out of our way for the pain but not the comfort?
This is why I look for the easy way out. The easy way requires some level of comfort and some level of, dare I say... slack. When we push ourselves, we often get in our own way. We are so muscularly engaged that we limit our range of motion so much more than necessary. Often we don't even know what our full range of motion is. Often we physically cannot get there without engaging so much.
Enter Thai Yoga Massage. Try letting a friend take you into cobra pose. Don't help, let them do it. The video below will talk you through it. Note that if you have any spine issues, you should only have this done by a professional.
Now, did you notice anything about your range of motion? I'm betting you just did the most super-humungous cobra of your life! With no effort!
On to the next step... do cobra pose on your own but remember the sensation of your partner helping you and try to recreate some of that - the imagination is a powerful tool.
Great job! Notice the difference? Less engagement, more movement. Maybe even less "pain is purification" and more "steady, stable, comfortable"? Keep practicing, it gets even better ;-)
This is one of the ways that receiving (and giving) Thai Yoga Massage can really impact your yoga practice. Find a Thai therapist, take a workshop (I'll be giving one in San Diego this Saturday!), try it out... let me know what you discover!
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