Baby grasshopper

My limbs are sore. It bothers me when I move only because it is painful but the pain ceased being so important to me. Why? Because I know that this pain is for a healthier and stronger body. In a way, this pain now is so that I can avoid future suffering, as my teachers always say.

My teachers have encouraged me to attend Vinyasa classes. According to them my yoga practice is doing well and so to be able to learn more, I should attend more Vinyasa classes. So that's what I have been doing. I have noticed the difference between FNR and Vinyasa Open Level classes. There are more variations and more complicated poses in Vinyasa Open Level classes than in FNR. Each time I am exposed to a new pose and I feel in my body that it is also adapting. I find it amazing to find that my body still has room to grow, that it can still adjust to more bending and that it can actually be a lot more stronger. I guess it also relates to our capacity as individuals in general. I've been working in the same industry for 10 years now and yes, sometimes I feel like I already know everything about a certain task. But every now and then I find myself in circumstances that challenge that belief and pushes me to see the world from a different perspective. Perhaps there is always room to grow no matter your age and your position in life.

In my most recent Vinyasa Open Level class, I was introduced to the Baby Grasshopper pose. When MD, our teacher, demonstrated it, I didn't think I could do it. It looks so easy for her but a lot intimidating for me. And yet I tried and when I tried it, I found that it wasn't as challenging as I thought it was going to be. The hardship was just in my head. Sure it wasn't easy but it was something I discovered I could do. 

And so that got me thinking about how we get overwhelmed by some circumstances in our lives because we allow the mind to think that it is difficult. Perhaps if we only look at it through a different lens, we would find that these things that we think are insurmountable are actually something we can overcome. Rainer Maria Rilke put it best, "perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."