practice

"Fuck no" is always my gut reaction when a teacher breaks down a new inversion in class or I see someone across the room from me doing ridiculously ridiculous things with his or her body. My next thought being, "How is that even possible?" Thirdly, "You want me to put what, where?" is sure to follow. There have been countless times where I've caught myself staring wide-eyed, jaw to the floor in utter shock, amazement and bewilderment. For anyone who has ever taken a yoga class, I know ja feel.

I'll just state the obvious here, it's not like someone pops out of the womb being able to do a handstand or put their foot behind their head while balancing on their own two hands, (for the record, yes, that's actually possible and most definitely something you need to see to believe) no matter how easy they make it look.

I've learned many things from yoga, i.e. the splits are ten fold harder to get out of than they are getting into, falling on your face before you fly into crow for the first time is inevitable, and it always seems impossible until it is done. These things take time, as do all of the best things in life, and even the most seemingly impossible tasks are absolutely possible with a little (most times a lot) of hard work.

A total type A in so many aspects of my life, the cleanliness of my room not being one of them, I have always looked toward perfection as the end goal in nearly everything I've done. As I've realized through hundreds of hours on my mat, I will never be happy if I'm always trying to reach that "perfect" pose or have a "perfect" practice. Here's a truth bomb for you guys: practice makes progress; and for practice to make progress we must fail, fail, fail and fail all over again. Each time we fail, we must let go of our ego, look for the learnings, internalize them and prepare for our next failure.

Failure means we're daring enough to find our edge, push it and fall off the other side.

So, here's to practice and failure, two inextricable life necessities. Don't be afraid to fall on your face every once in awhile, it will help you in reaching whatever it is that you work so hard for.  ;)

Namaste, bitches.