PROGRESS ON THE PATH by Gabe Hopp
It is my 20th anniversary of starting yoga! In December of 2003, I was home on holiday break from college. I must have gotten a yoga DVD for Christmas? I can’t quite remember the circumstances but I popped that disc in and posted up on the carpet in my parents’ basement. And to this day, there are 2 things that I very clearly remember from that first practice:
The teacher! Patricia Walden, who I knew nothing about at the time, turned out to be the American poster child and head teacher in the Iyengar method of yoga. B.K.S. Iyengar invented yoga props and worked deeply in alignment of the body, two principles that came to be extremely important guiding forces in my practice and teaching.
The SAVASANA. Holy moly. The savasana was EVERYTHING. After the practice (very little of which I can actually remember) I felt incredible. I felt more relaxed than I have ever felt in my life. I was floating on a cloud. I wanted to feel that way for the rest of my life.
And so, I kept doing the DVD. And then, when I returned to school in southern Indiana, I looked for yoga. There was one studio in town, brand new, and they taught hot yoga. I jumped in and never looked back. Thank you, savasana (oh, and Patrica), for setting me on this path.
20 years feels like kind of a big deal, so I’ve been reflecting a bit on progress and practice and how it’s all shaking out. It is widely acknowledged by yoga teachers that the biggest gains in practice come at the very beginning. This is especially true if you commit to practice in a regular way right out of the gate. Showing up one, two or three times a week with regularity typically ends in large gains. Some possible immediate outcomes are that you become more flexible — suddenly you can reach down and easily grab that pen you just dropped, you wake up with sore muscles in places you never imagined that you had muscles, your mind becomes more clearly focused, your sleep becomes better. Or, maybe you just start to feel better. An overall feeling of well-being is common when you are setting out on the yoga path.
If you stick with it you will continue to make gains, but over time, the progress becomes more spaced out. The thrill of touching your toes has receded, but the prospect of putting your hands flat to the floor feels a million miles away. You have to work harder to make headway and this can start to feel discouraging. You may think back to your early days and the way your practice grew with leaps and bounds. If you practice for a long time, there are bound to be injuries and setbacks and motivational issues and ruts. There will be periods where nothing really changes. The practice is simply that — a practice! And, it can be challenging to maintain the positive perspective of how far you have come along the way.
I think this is when the subtle gains start to take hold. As the practice unfolds over longer swaths of time, you start to tune into the more subtle experiences of energy and the nervous system. You may find yourself more drawn to styles that support self-care and rest, rather than fitness and cardio. You may discover the joy that is a consistent meditation practice.
In my own path, I still love to do strong yoga asana, but I have begun to lean much more heavily on the effects of daily meditation, rather than the physical practice. I seek out the balancing practices of pranayama (breath work) and restful restorative poses when I need them. The philosophy of Yoga has become my personal life’s work and my basis for how to move through the world.
So, while you never quite know where the path is going to take you, you can rest assured that it’s probably somewhere good. Stay the course!