A friend was recently telling me about her latest venture in yoga: the headstand. After practice yoga for 3 years, a new instructor began to push her to go for the inversion. Having always been deathly afraid of falling over and breaking her neck, she has avoided the upside-down balancing and opted instead for shoulder stand and plow. It’s not that she wasn’t physically able to do the headstand - a mental block was holding her back. Finally deciding to just get over it and go for it, she now ecstatically shares the news and can’t believe it took her so long to kick the mental limitation.
Sound familiar? Whether it be in your yoga, Pilates, or whatever practice, mental limitations can cause a serious barrier between progressing your physical capabilities. If it’s your mind and not your body holding your back (i.e., bad knees, recent surgery, etc.) take the time to think about your fears and why you let them take control. Say you’re like my friend and scared of inverting, ask the instructor to spot you until you have the confidence to go for it alone.
Think about how amazing you’ll feel once you conquer that new pose, fitness method, or class. Forewarning: you won’t be able to stop smiling. It’s an incredible feeling of accomplishment to not only tackle the pose, but to also acknowledge that you have pushed through a mental block! So you’ve conquered that headstand now - let’s chat about forearm stand, shall we? =)
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