Yoga is Not a Competition
“Enlightenment, peace, and joy will not be granted by someone else. The well is within us, And if we dig deeply in the present moment, The water will spring forth.” Thich Nhat Hanh
Yoga is not a competitive sport.
The time you spend on your mat is very personal and unique to cultivating your individual growth. The people around you, on or off the mat, can’t do this for you.
Without meaning to, we often get caught up in comparing ourselves to friends, neighbors, coworkers, and even strangers passing by. Maybe they have a bigger house, a better job, or more money, but when all of that is stripped away on the mat, what are they left with? A deeper lunge? An ability to hold a handstand? Try to let go of the comparison to what they are doing, it doesn’t serve you. Instead, focus on being rather than doing. Be in the pose, be connected to your breath, and be in your practice.
The asanas will look a bit different from person to person, without one way being more “right” than the other. The phrase “full expression of a pose” should be done away with. Your “full expression”－the deepest you are currently able to go into a pose－is likely different from the person on the mat next to you, the incredibly bendy yoga teacher you follow on social media, or even from yourself years prior. We are all exactly where we need to be on our yoga journey. Growth begins where we are.
“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go, they merely determine where you start.” Nido Qubein
In the classes I teach, I talk a lot about acceptance and feeling gratitude for where we are in our practice. It is within this practice of gratitude where we can begin to grow fresh roots and new branches. Those new branches might look like a balance of effort and ease in a pose like astavakrasana, eight angle pose, or maybe the ability to quiet the constant mind chatter with a bit more ease. The desire to grow in our yoga practice is important, but should stem from a desire within ourselves, for ourselves, not as a mere comparison to someone else.
Queue the role your ego plays on the mat.
I’ve heard it argued that the ego should be dropped as soon as you step onto your mat. I disagree. Your ego is an essential part of your yoga practice; however, you should stay in the driver’s seat on your mat, allowing your ego to take a comfortable seat in the back. By approaching your practice in this way, poses like a handstand or half moon become like mental and physical challenges to work through and grow from, rather than being poses that only seem accessible to the person next to you in class. The ego serves us when it whispers You could do that, rather than when we allow it to steer our thoughts to You could never.
To help keep your ego in check, challenge yourself to grow while practicing nonattachment. This could mean moving on your mat without focusing on an end goal, such as holding a handstand, and instead choosing to focus on and enjoy the journey. Practicing nonattachment on the mat also helps us to not fall into a cycle of comparing ourselves to how others look in a pose. It motivates us to simply be better, for ourselves, rather than striving to be better than someone else.
Your practice is yours alone. Don’t worry about the person on the mat next to you or even about what you used to be able to do. You are here now and you are exactly where you need to be.
