Recently I travelled to a remote island for a friend’s wedding. It was a very small airplane, and a domestic flight, there was no entertainment program at all on that flight. I had my book with me but the flight was quite bumpy so did not really have the motivation to bring out my thick book. Randomly I picked up the magazine in front of my seat and quickly browsed it. There was one article about free diving (I knew nothing about it) got my attention. There is this one particular paragraph very inspirational and when I relate that to my YTT experience, I think this is exactly as what this YTT journey has brought to me.
“This journey is all about patience, mindfulness, determination, respect and acceptance of what your mind and body are capable of…” The journey of my YTT 200 is almost ending now. I still remember at day one when I saw all the challenging poses on that brown paper Jessica handed to us, there was an voice in my head saying “this is impossible, how could you ever make a headstand, which never ever happened to you in your life and will never happen”. I remember I shook my head and murmured “oh my god, this is impossible”. At that moment I did believe it was impossible given the understanding of my body and mind, I was quite upset that night after the training, as I thought I am taking on something completely beyond my capability. Jessica has been so supportive and inspirational, she kept on iterate at classes that everybody is different, it is ok if you cannot do certain poses, it is all about understanding and knowing your body’s capability and accept it, find the right variation which can bring you similar effect, keep on practicing it, building the strength of your body and mind, concentrate and be more mindful, one day the magic moment may happen when your body is ready, or it may not happen, even if it does not happen, it is perfectly fine as well.
Just like that, I made it, I can do headstand now, and a few other poses that I never thought I could ever make it! I know Yoga is not about poses, this is all about the process, the journey, the journey of keep on practicing with determination, the journey of unite my body, soul and mind, the journey of respect and acceptance myself.
