My teacher recently sent me a piece of the Yoga Sutras about obstacles to practice (1.30): “These obstacles are disease, inertia, doubt, heedlessness, laziness, indiscipline of the senses, erroneous views, lack of perseverance, and backsliding.”
I struggle with several of these, or maybe all of them. It’s good to know that other people have struggled with them through time.
I’ve had some sort of inflammation for the past several weeks that has had all my joints swollen and sore. Kneeling is particularly painful. This past week has been interesting in how I’m dealing with this obstacle. One day I didn’t do any yoga, because it’s hard, painful, and I can’t do many of the things I normally can. Then I realized how silly that was. I need to do it MORE when I’m in pain and in doubt.
In this morning’s practice everything I did seemed, well, half-assed. I felt like giving up. But I remembered mention recently of someone who teaches chair yoga and bedtop yoga. I’m not bedridden or chairbound. I can keep going. So I did. It turned into a good practice, and reminded me that more is possible with a little interior push.
Practice Notes 