“In yoga we learn to stay with the posture, to hold the posture. Difficulty, discomfort, fear, boredom, distraction – the entire gamut of thoughts and emotions arises, and we simply observe their comings and goings. We learn to use what comes up to inform the present posture and to help us in the postures to come. There is a liability in this ethos, however, thanks to our ‘No pain, no gain’ Puritan heritage. The hardworking, well-intentioned yoga student often believes that nothing less than a 100%, gonads-to-the-wall effort will do. The fallout from this misconception can be injury, but more often it is simply bitterness and blame….There is another way. We need to learn to make rest a part of our practice, and we need to take that rest long before we feel exhausted or frustrated.”
from “Meditations from the Matt” by Rolf Gates & Katrina Kenison, day 14
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