If you are anything like me, sometimes you talk yourself out of doing things that are both good for you and that you truly want to do. Why do we do this? I’m not sure, but I know we do.
Ten years ago, I came very close to not beginning to go to yoga classes. I had not only ordinary reasons but I dare say BRILLIANT reasons for why I should not do yoga.
Here are seven of them:
1. Yoga has a great deal to do with flexibility.
I’m naturally as un-flexible as a 2 by 4.
2. Often the people I see doing yoga in magazines, on TV and on Instagram seem to have natural flowing “yoga bodies.”
I DON’T!
In fact I have cerebral palsy on the count of my umbilical cord getting kinked like a garden hose when I was born. My natural coordination is so unique, I developed a habit of catching basketballs with my glasses in grade school and once threw a shot put backwards during a track meet. Needless to say I naturally have THE OPPOSITE of a yoga body.
3. Yoga requires a great deal of concentration.
When I started doing yoga ten years ago, my mind was basically a cross between gigantic worry wart and a huge pussing zit. I was constantly distracted by anything and everything.
4. Yoga students master amazing yoga poses fairly quickly.
When it comes to acquiring new physical skills, it often seems like I’m an achingly slow learner. For example, it took about two years of skinned up knees for me to finally learn to ride a bike. I like to imagine that the bandage and peroxide companies were very happy during this time.
My knees weren’t.
5. Going to yoga class on a regular basis takes a good deal of time.
I’m creating a professional speaking business SPEECH IMPEDIMENT and all. To briefly summarize- THIS HASN’T BEEN AN EASY ROAD. Hence, part of me believes I should spend every extra second I have developing my business.
6. I don’t have the athletic confidence to do yoga.
Other than running high school cross country and track, I have avoided group exercise and team sports like the plague.
7. Yoga is mainly something women do.
I’m a guy.
If I had let even one of these reasons dissuade me from doing yoga, I would have missed out on one of the most profoundly positive experiences of my life.
In the last ten years, I’ve gone to thousands of yoga classes, successful passed yoga teacher training and even taught a yoga few classes. I feel more consistently relaxed today than I have since I was a little kid. At age 42, I feel far healthier than I did at age 20. I can concentrate now like I’ve never been able to concentrate before. Thus, I’m far more productive than I used to be. In addition, I’ve met many wonderful friends through yoga.
It’s almost startling to look back and realize that I almost allowed my brilliant reasons to convince not to try yoga.
I’m so glad that instead I took action and went to that first yoga class. Once I started getting classes under my belt, I was able to then weigh my reasons against the actual experience of doing yoga. What I soon found was that even though my reasons had seemed brilliant in my head, the actual experience was far more profound and quickly quieted the reasons down.
Is there anything you really want to do that you are creating brilliant reasons not to do? What would it be like to try it and then compare your reasons to the actual experience?
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