(This is the 4th of the Eight Universal Principles for Stepping up to the Edge by Baron Baptiste taken from his book - “Journey into Power”.)
Photo Credit: Unsplash / Larm Rmah
Ok, so you’ve stepped up! You have accepted your fear of doing the Crow pose.
You do it now.
You fall.
So you start again.
You fail, I mean you fall again.
And the cycle goes on, and you tell yourself you’ve done everything that you can do. You should have listened to that little voice that said you cannot do it, why did I bother? I’m a failure. I suck.
You give up and you hide in your comfort zone. You stop doing it. You watch the class do it and start having conversations in your head.
“If you’ve always done what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”
When you are about to give up, do you give up totally (that’s it! adios amigos) or give up the way you do it then, and try a new way of doing or being?
If THIS whatever this is, doesn’t work out, what do you do?
Yes till today, I’m still struggling with my crow pose. And my reality is I may never get it. My wrist will never get better. But who knows. What I do know is as long as I stop focusing on what I cannot do, and start focusing on what I can - go into malasana, and maybe hanging for 1-2 sec with my toes still on the ground - it makes my yoga life easy!
To me, Exceed yourself to find your exceeding self is to ask more of myself by giving myself permission to fail. And instead of being concern of looking good, drop what I know and look for what’s available and possible in that moment.
“The moment you believe you have no more energy or capability, when you are certain you have to give up, is when you will experience the most profound breakthroughs.”
One of my students, Valentina shared her thoughts on what this principle means to her - she says it's about surrendering.
Surrendering - doesn’t mean you give up totally; but relaxing to receive whatever comes up.
There’s the yogic saying, the real yoga starts when you fall out of the pose.
When you are at the point of failure, the brink of giving up or at your edge, is when the magic happens.
surrender to find your exceeding better self.
When you hit your edge, when you’re about to give up, ON OR OFF THE MAT, instead of giving in to frustrations and listening to those voices in your head, can you focus on your commitment for growth and ask yourself - what’s coming up for you? Can you breathe and find equanimity where you are?
“Your best efforts have gotten you where you are. If you want to grow beyond where you are, if you believe that there are possibilities, then you need to exceed yourself, do new things. change.”
Journaling:
Where is my comfort zone, when I’m on mat? Where is my comfort one at work & in my relationships with people ?
What would be possible if I were to move out of my comfort zone in all areas of my life?
What is so scary about moving outside of my comfort zone?