I turn 39 in a couple of weeks – this pic was taken on Christmas eve just gone.
It’s Ashtanga Yoga that did this. I can show you pictures of me around age 30 as a physically lacklustre, overweight, corporate “achiever”, running on a metaphorical treadmill of economic fixation.
What created this transformation is 5 years of Ashtanga practice, 6 days a week, the same sequence, over and over again, with minor tweak every few months.
This system works. It’s not all that popular, but it works. I’ve seen middle aged mothers with wide hips, thin and wiry mechanics with narrow hips, teenagers, large people, underweight people, all put their legs behind their head. The only common factor with them all is that they practice the same sequence daily, over and over again.
It’s “easy”. Just do the practice. Do what Dan says. There’s pain, but there’s very little tedium. There’s intensity, but it’s from within rather than put onto you from someone else.
Eventually the physical pain goes. I used to wonder if I was having too much pain, if I was doing damage. There was a lot of pain, but eventually everything that was once difficult became easy. There were injuries that turned into information about psychology and physiology.
Now there’s comfort and peace and a harnessing of a healthy mind that sees the temporary nature of pain and pleasure, that is aware of the amazing capacity of the being in which we inhabit to manifest all kinds of reality.
The physical image is a figurehead, an idol. Worship it at your peril. The repetitive, quiet, intense nature of Ashtanga Yoga ensures that, sooner or later, any physically-driven motivation will be burned away and replaced. But hey, I’ll still post this picture! I’m bending over backwards catching my thighs – how weird is that!!
You don’t actually need yoga btw, life will show you that with good intentions and a willingness to grow, you will grow. Things that were hard become easy, it’s a natural process. Yoga is just a system that has worked for a very long time.
We are here to flourish and to help each other flourish. Nothing more.