Regulars and Shorts

Yoga Pose of the Month: Does Your Yoga Practice Feed You?

By Charlotte Bell

When fancy yoga poses serve your ego, but no longer your body?
by Charlotte Bell

More than 20 years ago I decided to ingest only foods that would contribute to my health and well-being, and avoid “non-foods” that have no nutritional value, things like chemical-ridden processed foods and zero-nutrition soft drinks.

I like Michael Pollan’s advice: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Despite my occasional diversions, my everyday diet is healthy, whole, organic food that contributes to my well-being. When I frame my diet this way I don’t feel at all deprived because I know that everything I eat counts. I eat local, organic and homegrown foods whenever possible and always cook from scratch. Fortunately, I love to cook.

The treats I occasionally indulge in are just that: treats. They are not my mainstay, but they do help keep me from falling into the trap of dietary self-righteousness, a common malady among healthy eaters. Plus, treats are fun and sometimes they hit the spot.

A recent weekend yoga immersion with Jenny Otto at Mindful Yoga Collec­tive in Salt Lake City got me thinking about yoga the same way. The idea that occupies me most at the moment is this: In the workshop, Jenny spoke about how her asana practice is now 100% about making choices that create health in her body. She stated that she no longer has time for practicing poses that might be risky or poses that don’t in some way contribute to balancing the imbalances in her body.

Like Jenny, my yoga practice has organically moved in the same direction. I’ve crossed a lot of poses that I once loved off my practice list. Extreme backbends? Nope. Head­stand? Nope. Extreme hip openers? Nope. It’s not that my body won’t still do these poses. It will. But I realize there are physical consequences I’m no longer willing to abide. Living without pain, being able to walk and moving with fluidity are now more important to me than achieving fancy poses. My practice has become very simple. It feels good—at least physically.

On the other hand, my ego has not always been pleased with my change of direction. I’ve had to drag it kicking and screaming into simpler practice. I’ve felt periodic remorse about giving up fancy poses. For decades, a fair amount of my self-worth was dependent on being a person with a body that can do anything and rarely suffer any negative consequences. Who am I if I don’t do fancy poses? But bodies, like everything else, change, as do our minds and hearts.

My body’s ability to perform fancy poses gave me a sense of worth. But as my teacher, Pujari Keays, once said to me: “If you are basing your happiness on things that will change or go away—your home, your job, money, relationships, even your body—you are in for a lot of suffering.”

When Jenny—who also enjoyed busting fancy poses back in the day—told us of her modified intentions for practice these days, it gave me permission to embrace the ways my own practice has changed. While my practice has naturally evolved toward simplicity over the years, I’d never actually changed my intention for yoga practice, as I did with my diet. In setting the intention to practice only poses that serve my body and mind as they currently are, giving up some of my former favorite fancy poses feels like a gain rather than a loss.

Fancy poses are fun. But in hindsight, I sometimes wish I hadn’t made them a staple of my yoga diet back in the day. My joints are often cranky and I sometimes move with less fluidity than I would like, at least partly because I made extreme yoga so important.

So here’s what I recommend: Practice fancy poses sometimes. Have fun with them. But think of them as dessert. They provide the same kind of instant gratification as sweet treats, but like sweet treats, they can also take a toll. That adrenaline rush you get from extreme backbends will bring an edgy exhaustion later on, and overstretching your joints may feel good now, but they may not weather well over time.

Make the basics your staples: standing poses, balances, easy backbends, simple twists, forward bends. A simple, mindful practice provides sustenance.

Extreme yoga is fun in the moment, but may leave you with the yogic equivalent of a sugar hangover—not to mention chronic imbalances later on.

Be open to what your body and mind are telling you and revisit your intentions for practice. It’s okay for practice to change. An evolving practice is a living practice.

Editor’s note: Last month, the headline and photo to Charlotte’s column were correct. However, the text that appeared with it was a repeat of the previous month’s pose. Great big oops. We apologize to you (and to Charlotte!). The online version was corrected immediately. You may find the full and proper version at http://catalystmagazine.net/this-month/item/2470-yoga-pose-of-the-month-setu-bandha-sarvangasana

This article was originally published on May 31, 2014.