So, if you shift your perspective towards yoga as your special time with yourself – which it really is – you begin to look forward to it.
If I gave you a spoonful of medicine, however sweet, and a cup of icecream, which will you choose?
This has been my goad, for all those who say, they lack the discipline to do yoga. There is no need for discipline. We overrate it. It is really about shifting perspective. If you see yoga as a therapy, then you will resist it. Anyone would. Why do you judge yourself harshly for it, or demean yourself as indisciplined. Instead, see yoga as your own Me-time. Fun time. Choose a style of yoga which engages you in such a fashion, then you will look forward to your practice.
Make yoga your me-time
I have taught yoga for over two decades, after dunking an exciting career as a journalist/feature writer, with freedom to explore my love for writing. To turn over, and become a yoga teacher when it was neither paying, nor glamorous (as it is now) was difficult. I loved to practice. But teaching is not the same thing as practising. And to teach to a bunch of people who most often suffer it, can be tough. This is where I realised, that for me personally, the idea of discipline needed to be re-examined. Come rain, or shine, I had to be up before everybody else, and do my sadhana before the class, and then plunge head on into the class. No matter if there was a personal disaster, no matter if I had a physical issue, I just had to land up. I realised being disciplined would make me a stoic, even a sere teacher. Instead, I need to look forward to the class, bring in a huge amount of energy to be able to reach my enthusiasm to people who still lacked my love for the subject. So I realised that I need to make the idea of teaching fun.
I ritualised the entire business of waking up predawn (after being a night owl all my life, and choosing a profession that allowed night shifts, this was a huge hurdle). I kept out a colourful set of clothes, decided on accessories that matched it, all done the night before. In the morning, I would finish my meditation first, then sit by just enjoying the rare moment of stillness as the world hushed, before it began to clamour.
This moment of hush was and is a vital part of joy I feel, as I look forward to waking up early.
I realised, thanks largely to my yoga practice, that it is not the external, but the internal, labels that can lead to a sense of contentment and joy in our choices and activity. That way anything difficult or boring can be fed into our brain as exciting. And lo, it becomes that.
So, if you shift your perspective towards yoga as your special time with yourself – which it really is – you begin to look forward to it. Psst: you also begin to enjoy your own company… which, in turn, makes others enjoy your company too!
A sadhana that can change your life
If this shift happens there are so many positives:
1) You will be more regular with your practice, therefore gain all those benefits of yoga… health, high energy, and youthfulness.
2) When we redirect attention back to ourself (why is this so tough, has been a big puzzle to me) we actually create a biological condition for more release of dopamine, chemical that makes us feel calm, good and content. The lack of which makes us seek it, vainly, in external addictions.
3) If you learn to go for your practice with keenness you will also allow room for further growth in it. And once you immerse in it, you will appreciate, how it begins to improve upon other areas of your life, such as improved hand-limb co-ordination, cognitive skills, intuition, improved confidence, and better self-esteem.
4) For the fun of it, then for any purpose, is the best way to learn something significant in your life. Children learn most things that way, till adults start imposing their warped values into their little heads. Not to compete, to be better than someone, or because it is a paying profession, but just because you enjoy it.
Here are other ways to relook you practice:
If there is something that you really do not like or avoid on the mat, most likely it is what both your body and mind needs! This may seem odd, especially with most yoga classes (actually they do that for their own convenience!) insisting that you stay within your comfort zone. But let’s not forget yoga’s most important rule: yogasch chitta vritti nirodah ie yoga is the movement against the movement of your mind. It does not mean you immediately rush in where angels fear to tread, but examine things that you are avoiding on the mat, and see why, and seek a way around, to reach them safely, but surely.
Do not stay static. Keep an interesting trajectory of growth and create its own momentum of attraction that draws you to the mat.
Include all aspects of the practice. This ideas reconnects back to the first one mentioned here. For instance, I have had so many students who tried to tell me they do not like pranayama or meditation, and wish for me to cut those aspects down. But yoga is a composite practice. This is as silly as putting a child in a school with just language and sports because it does not like maths or vernacular. Somewhere along the line all the subjects create your child’s education and give it a wholeness, never mind its individual aptitude. The same rule applies for yoga as well.
So, instead of wistfully saying you wish you did more yoga, all you need to do is tweak your attitude. The sadhana will then fall in place.
This can change your life.
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Shameen Akhtar
Shameem Akthar is a yoga teacher and author of three books on the subject, proprietor Spandana Studio
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