Why You Feel Stuck and How to Get Unstuck
B.K.S. Iyengar was what I'd call a master of yoga and yet he reminds us that there's always that student aspect even as we master something. There are always more things to learn.
When we give ourselves permission to be curious, we discover that within our normal habits there are things that would benefit us if we changed.
And that may sound kind of abstract so let me give you a concrete example.
Right now I’m in a 300 hour yoga teacher training program and a big part of that training was a deep dive into anatomy and really understanding the muscles, connective tissue, and how everything within our bodies works together.
I now see how each muscle works in tandem with one another and the whole structure of the body. This used to confuse me and it just didn't really make sense. It just seemed like a bunch of stuff to memorize. Now it makes sense to me.
When I move my body I visualize where everything is connected to everything else and I noticed that some of my habits are not serving me. For example when I'm in chair pose, (a pose I've been doing for more than 20 years) I’m not engaging the primary muscles for that pose!
It turns out, when I'm in chair pose I tend to use my hip flexors more than I use my glutes!
What does that mean? So your hip flexors are the muscles that connect the top of your thigh into your pelvis so they’re on the front side of your body. Whereas your glutes, your butt muscles, are on your backside. When you're in chair there are a lot of different muscles working to support you and the glutes are one of the primary muscles in that pose.
Which meant my hip flexors on the front side of my body were doing waaaaaaay more work than was necessary.
So now after doing this pose for over 20 years engaging the opposite muscles than the ones that would most benefit me most, I'm relearning how to do this pose!
I still haven't quite figured out how to fully turn on my glutes, but that's okay because I'm staying curious.
I'm staying open to the process.
I'm observing and noticing my body.
I get to tweak my pose everytime I come into it, so that someday I’ll experience fully engaging my glutes in chair pose.
I share this story because I think it's a great example of a habit where I thought I was engaging all of the appropriate muscles to get the most benefit from the pose.
Instead I've been overusing muscles that are really meant to be stabilizing support instead of the primary workers. So how might this relate to you?
Well I'm willing to bet that you've got habits like this where you think that what you're doing is serving you yet in reality it's not the best thing for you.
It's not hurting you by any means. I have not been hurting my hip flexors, but there are things in your life that if you shifted them a little bit, if you got a little more curious, it might open up a whole new way of being that feels more supportive and beneficial.
Journaling Prompt: What habit might you be ready to adjust?
If you’re feeling unsure of which habit you’re ready to adjust, then I invite you to do an Intention Setting Session with me.
It’s an opportunity to get curious, dive deep, and find a simple step to get you moving in the right direction, all within a safe space.
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I was cut off from my yoga community, my safe space of support, and I didn’t know how to find that on my own. I felt so lost.