All Poses Are Created Equal

Hey all, Jen here. 

Chances are that if you practice yoga, there are at least a few asanas (poses) that elude you. More advanced poses that you don't feel like you can do yet, and you think that when you can, you will be an advanced yogi. Maybe it's an arm balance like crow or side crow. Maybe it's an inversion like headstand or handstand. 

Or maybe it's not necessarily an "advanced pose," but just a pose your particular body doesn't love to do, like dolphin (Landen) or revolved triangle (me). 

But what if you knew one of yoga's biggest secrets?

(Well, it's not much of a secret. I mean, I know it. And I'm no guru. But here it is:)

ALL yoga poses are created equal.

Headstand is not "better" than child's pose. Crow is not "better" than downward-facing dog. Low plank is not "better" than high plank.

They are all equal. They are all just positions of the body, some achievable in the moment, some not, but all the same in the end. 

I struggle with seated forward fold. My hamstrings don't go that way. I can't reach halfway down without a prop for assistance. Yet I can do a grasshopper arm balance like nobody's business.

Shouldn't I be able to do the "easy" pose since I can do the "better" pose? No. My body is mine and it can do some things and not other things, and maybe you're the opposite, but that has to do with our bodies, not the poses themselves. 

It's like this: We all use the same alphabet. And one person can use that alphabet to create words that hurt and make fun of someone, and another person uses that same alphabet to create words that make someone happy.

Same poses. Different bodies. The poses are neutral. What makes them NOT neutral are the thoughts we have about each pose, the stories we tell ourselves about our ability in each pose. 

Can you go through an entire class working with the idea that every pose is neutral? That the poses are not creating your experience, but YOU are? 

I dare you.