Sit One Out

The camel pose in yoga is one of my favorite poses—it is achieved by standing tall on your knees, bending backward to look at the wall (or ceiling) behind you, and if you have the mobility, grabbing your feet. It is one of the most vulnerable poses in my practice and it also provides the GREATEST stretch.

It’s amazing that one of the hardest and most uncomfortable poses provides the greatest release and feeling. 

In the class I take most regularly, called Original Hot Yoga, which is a scaled-down version of a Bikram yoga class, camel is one of the few poses we do twice—we’ll hold camel, take a short break to release, and then hold a second camel before progressing to the rest of the class. The second camel is usually the best because it builds upon the first round and allows for a little bit deeper release in the chest and fronts of the legs.

Pretty much every class I will do both sets of camel, even if a little extra rest during the second round is welcome. I know I can do two rounds and there’s no reason to skip—it’s just my mind testing me because I know my body is able. 

This past Friday I did something out of the normal—I skipped the second set of camel.

I skipped my second set, even though I could have probably used it given the chest workout I had done the day before, to remind my Self that it is ok to sit one out from time to time. Just because I COULD do the second set didn’t mean I had to do the second set—I wasn’t weaker for it and my practice that day wasn’t any less than the day before.

Along our Pursuit, it is easy to get caught up in wanting to do “all of the things” all of the time. 

We see our peers doing something and we feel the need to match their effort and intensity.  We are reminded to get more rep or run one more mile because our mind will quit before our body. We feel the pressure to take “no days off”.

Well, sometimes I think you should sit one round out, or stop one rep short, or take a day off just because you can—remind your Self you are in control of your Pursuit and life and if you feel like taking a round off you can do so—with no judgments.

Do it because you can.

On Monday, I’ll most likely do both sets of camel and be no worse off because of Friday’s extra rest.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC