our friend, inner critic
Arriving at exactly 7:30 p.m. I am greeted with a smile and hello by the radiating instructor.
"I love your Teva's!" she exclaims.
"Ohmygosh! Thank you - they're the Target knock off!" I laugh. She checks me in and asks how my Monday is going. "I'm a bit drained," I answer. "So if I stay in down dog or child's pose don't worry about me," I elaborate laughing.
"Sometimes I have the best intentions during a class, but end up spending 30 minutes in child's pose," she replies. Wait, what? You, the instructor just admitted to me that sometimes in the middle of taking a class yourself you can't handle whatever is occurring and your body signals to you that you need a reset, and you listen. Mind blown, followed quickly by the epiphany that this must be what my students feel when I share my writer's block struggles or misspell a word on the white board. The teacher is in fact a human, not a robot. She is the same as me, but instead of writing/literature she is the yoga teacher. And she has just extended a piece of herself in an effort for transparency and understanding.
Class is not about nailing every pose in the exact same movement as those around you or even as the instructor pacing us. No, it's your time to align every aspect of yourself and that is only possible when we hone in on ourselves instead of others. Vinyasa is the movement of your body paired with your breath. Each movement is either an inhale or exhale, and it is when you listen to your body that you are able to achieve the flow of the movements and feel the balance within yourself.
I did not have to reside to down dog or child's pose. Her confession empowered me to know that the restful positions are always an option if my breath and body are not in sync. With the realization, I felt no pressure and moved fluidly through the sets - even the challenging balance ones she threw at us - and afterwards we laughed about me not having to rest.
When failure is an option as you challenge yourself, the potential for achievement is infinite.