The twin dragons of resistance and chaos can disrupt your plans for a daily yoga practice. (cartoon provided by Sean DSouza of Psychotactics.com)
“This is tougher than I thought it would be.” Alice said to her yoga teacher “I thought the hard part of getting a daily yoga practice established would be getting used to the schedule. Now I am finding it difficult to keep the practice in place.
There are days when I don’t want to get on my mat at all and then there are days when absolutely everything goes wrong and I can not get near my mat at all.”
“You have run into the twin dragons of Resistance and Chaos. These two will do anything they can to disrupt your daily yoga practice.” says Alice’s yoga teacher.
What are the Resistance and Chaos Dragons
These twin dragons will show up at the most unexpected times. One of them you can see and the other one is invisible.
The Resistance Dragon
This dragon comes out of your own head. Resistance shows up when you start thinking of skipping your yoga practice for today. You start to rationalize how missing only one day will not make a difference. Then tomorrow the conversation with yourself starts again and before you know it you have missed several days in a row.
The Resistance Dragon is sneaky like that and it slips in and disrupts your plans one thought at a time.
The Resistance Dragon is hidden inside of you and can strike at any time unlike the Chaos Dragon which is an external beast.
The Chaos Dragon
While you might be able to exercise some control over the Resistance Dragon, the Chaos Dragon is another matter altogether.
The Chaos Dragon is the events that you have little or no control over. Some examples of Chaos dragons are:
- A sudden problem at work that requires you to stay late
- A plumbing problem at home that needs your immediate attention
- A traffic jam that prevents you from getting to the studio in time.
All of these events you have no control over. The Chaos Dragon is lurking just around the corner waiting to jump out and trip you up at the most unexpected times.
Alice’s yoga teacher tells her that there are few things that she can do that will help her to defeat the twin dragons of Resistance and Chaos.
- Be flexible
- Change it up
- Change your focus
To keep a daily yoga practice going you need to be flexible in your approach to your practice.
1. Be flexible
Maybe today is not the day for an early morning practice. The Chaos Dragon has been around a lot lately.
- Last night was a late night.
- Yesterday was a tough day.
- Today is going to be a challenge.
- Work is filling up your schedule.
- There is a big family event today.
- You got to bed late and you are still tired.
Listen to your mind and your body. Perhaps today is a day for a light practice. Maybe all you do is sit on your mat in Lotus and meditate for a few minutes.
Do not beat yourself up.
If the Resistance Dragon has been by and you are not willing to practice this morning then plan on an evening practice instead. There is no point in forcing yourself to practice when your mind and body are not willing. If you force yourself to practice you will change your regular yoga practice from something that you look forward to into something that you dread or even hate.
There is nothing wrong with taking an occasional rest day when the mind is rebelling.
Sometimes all you need to do get the Resistance Dragon under control is to be willing to make some changes to your practice.
2. Change it up
If you usually practice the same sequence of yoga poses everyday or you always practice at the same time or in the same place everyday then consider making some changes.
Today rather than a physical practice do a meditation practice. Sit still and meditate. Focus on your mind rather than your body.
You can change the length of the practice. If you normally practice for 90 minutes, try a 15 minute or 30 minute practice.
Add some variety to your practice. Change the sequence of poses that you normally do. Give yourself something to look forward to. Change how you enter and exit a pose. Give yourself a treat, a fresh new yoga practice.
Alice has discovered that when the Resistance Dragon is threating to disrupt her practice she promises herself that she will only do the opening Sun Salutes and maybe one or two standing postures if she feels like it. Sometimes when those days happen that is all she does. A nice short practice and then she is off.
Other times Alice discovers that once she gets started on the short practice that she has continued beyond the promised end point. Her mind has settled down and the Resistance Dragon is gone. On those days Alice gets in a complete practice.
There are other things that you can do to keep your practice interesting and fresh. You can change the focus of your practice for today and defeat the Resistance Dragon.
3. Change your focus
Each time you practice you can pick a different aspect of your practice to focus on. You can focus on your breath, your gaze, your mind or the poses that you are doing. Each of these brings a different view to the same practice. The easiest focus to start with is your breath.
Breath
One day you can focus on your breath. Check out the quality of your breath as you do each pose. Is your breath easy flowing or restricted? Is your breath of equal length on the inhale and the exhale?
Gaze
Another day you can focus on your gaze. Are you looking in the correct direction for this pose? Are you looking all over the place? Are you distracted by the shiny objects that are all around or are you focused on your pose?
Mind
Focus on your mind. Are you more focused in this pose or that pose. Is there a particular type of pose that you are more focused in? Is there a pose that your rebel at? Is your mind wandering to the future or the past? Are you focused on the moment? What is going on with your mind.
Poses
Focus on individual pose and the affect it has on your body. One time focus on twisting poses. Become aware of the muscles in your back as you enter each of the poses. Another time focus on forward bends, then back bends.
Changing the focus of your practice each day is one way to keep your practice fresh each day and keep the Resistance Dragon at bay.
Summary
Alice has learned from her yoga teacher several techniques that she can use to keep the twin dragons of Chaos and Resistance at bay.
She can
- be flexible in her approach to her practice. She can change the time of day, the length of the practice. She can even take a day off.
- change it up and have a completely different practice today. Have a meditation practice instead of a physical practice. Change the sequence of poses. She can make the practice fresh again.
- Change the focus of her practice. She can focus on one element of the practice such as her breath, her gaze, or her mind. Each of these will bring a fresh perspective to her practice and make it new again.
When the twin dragons come to disrupt your practice try these techniques to keep them at bay.
Next Step
Talk to your yoga teachers about the techniques they use to maintain their daily yoga practice.
Additional Reading
To learn more about establishing a daily yoga practice for yourself read How to develop a daily yoga practice.
Read How the Resistance game keeps moving your yoga practice forward to learn some more techniques to defeat the Resistance dragon.
How to keep your practice going when Chaos strikes will show you how to keep going in the face of the Chaos dragon.
